strange and random happenstance

The Rushworth Family Plot by Claudia Gray
Published by: Vintage
Publication Date: June 17th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The fourth book in New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray's Jane Austen sequel series, which finds amateur sleuths Jonathan Darcy and Juliet Tilney caught up in the whirlwind of the London Season - and in a murderous scheme involving the family of Edmund and Fanny Bertram

Jonathan Darcy and Juliet Tilney understand each other perfectly; it's a pity their families do not. A series of misunderstandings, misplaced pride, and - indeed - prejudice, has led their parents to deem the pair unsuited to wed. Now, with the Season approaching, Juliet's grandfather, General Tilney, has sent her to London with a new wardrobe and orders to prove herself worthy of someone better than the snobby Darcys. Meanwhile, Jonathan has been forced to accept an invitation to stay in town with old friends Edmund and Fanny Bertram at the house of Edmund's brother, Sir Thomas. Oblivious to and undesiring of female attention outside of Juliet's, Jonathan is at risk of being ensnared by Caroline Bingley's previously rebuffed plans to make herself - or her daughter - mistress of Pemberley.

But when Mr. Rushworth, the former husband of Edmund's sister Maria, is discovered dead in his home, Jonathan and Juliet find themselves with problems far weightier than the marriage market. In one of the greatest scandals of its day, Maria abandoned her new husband in favor of the notorious rake Henry Crawford, and when he wouldn't marry her, was forced to flee to the continent in disgrace. Now Maria is back, accompanied by a daughter she claims Mr. Rushworth fathered after their divorce - and who he wrote into his will just before his death. To spare Edmund and Fanny further social shame, Jonathan and Juliet must unmask a killer before the drama surrounding the Rushworth family fortune claims another victim."

Damn, Mr. Rushworth dead!?! I've always felt sorry for him. I too want his killer caught.

To Catch a Lord by Emma Orchard
Published by: Boldwood Books
Publication Date: June 17th, 2025
Format: eBook, 332 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"London, 1813

As a daughter of the notorious Wyverne family, Lady Amelia is used to being the subject of gossip. But while she has accepted her marred reputation - however unfair it is - she hates the horrible men it attracts.

Amelia decides she needs a suitor of impeccable repute to save her from the attentions of ungentlemanly gentlemen, and who better than the handsome and famously moral Lord Thornfalcon? Since coming into his title, 'Thorn' has been besieged by women who want to marry him, or have an affair with him, or both - so perhaps a pretend relationship might suit him too?

There's just one small catch. Thorn's childhood sweetheart Lavinia has also set her sights on him again, and rallied half the ton behind her. But what does that matter to Amelia - it's only a fake engagement, isn't it? Except, as Lavinia and her friends try to tear Amelia and Thorn apart, she starts to realise that her feelings may not be quite so fake after all.

Because the trouble with brave and handsome Lords is...they might just steal your heart."

Yes yes, beware brave and handsome Lords and faux relationships of convenience, love might be right behind.

A Far Better Thing by H.G. Parry
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: June 17th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell meets A Tale of Two Cities in H. G. Parry’s A Far Better Thing, a heart-rending fantasy of faery revenge set during the French Revolution.

I feared this was the best of times; I hoped it could not get any worse.

The faeries stole Sydney Carton as a child, and made him a mortal servant of the Faery Realm. Now, he has a rare opportunity for revenge against the fae and Charles Darnay, the changeling left in his stead.

It will take magic and cunning - cold iron and Realm silver - to hide his intentions from humans and fae and bring his plans to fruition.

Shuttling between London and Paris during the Reign of Terror, generations of violence-begetting-violence lead him to a heartbreaking choice in the shadow of the guillotine."

If you haven't read any of H.G. Parry's magical tales set during the French Revolution, you are in for a ride. They are thrilling and so deeply researched, the worlds are habitable by the reader.

A Case of Mice and Murder by Sally Smith
Published by: Raven Books
Publication Date: June 17th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The first in a delightful new mystery series set in the hidden heart of London's legal world, introducing a wonderfully unwilling sleuth, perfect for fans of Richard Osman and Nita Prose.

When barrister Gabriel Ward steps out of his rooms at exactly two minutes to seven on a sunny May morning in 1901, his mind is so full of his latest case - the disputed authorship of bestselling children's book Millie the Temple Church Mouse - that he scarcely registers the body of the Lord Chief Justice of England on his doorstep.

But even he cannot fail to notice the judge's dusty bare feet, in shocking contrast to his flawless evening dress, nor the silver carving knife sticking out of his chest. In the shaded courtyards and ancient buildings of the Inner Temple, the hidden heart of London's legal world, murder has spent centuries confined firmly to the casebooks. Until now...

The police can enter the Temple only by consent, so who better to investigate this tragic breach of law and order than a man who prizes both above all things? But murder doesn't answer to logic or reasoned argument, and Gabriel soon discovers that the Temple's heavy oak doors are hiding more surprising secrets than he'd ever imagined..."

Please say the murder has to do with a children's author! It would be wonderful synchronicity. 

The Lost Masterpiece by B.A. Shapiro
Published by: Algonquin Books
Publication Date: June 17th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"An enigmatic painting. The mystery of who painted it. A riveting thriller from the bestselling author of The Art Forger.

In a gripping novel full of plot twists, B.A. Shapiro embeds us in a circle of famous painters in late-nineteenth-century Paris, centering on the anguished Impressionist artist Berthe Morisot - the one woman in their midst who never got her due - and the story of Morisot's great-great-great-great granddaughter, Tamara Rubin, who has inherited Édouard Manet's Party on the Seine, a painting that completely upends her life.

When Tamara inherits Party, she discovers a long-hidden family history replete with unanswered questions: How had it been stolen by the Nazis? How had the painting managed to survive three disasters that destroyed every other artwork around it? And most of all, why had she never known about her ancestor, Berthe Morisot? As the painting begins to metamorphose into darker and more terrifying versions of itself, Tamara's ordinary life is thrown into turmoil. What wounds and resentments plagued Morisot, and to what lengths will her spirit go for revenge?

The Lost Masterpiece is a story of love, adultery, betrayal, family secrets, and the grueling birth of Impressionism, taking the reader on a whirlwind adventure from the streets of Paris in the late 1800s and the studio Berthe Morisot shared with Manet, Degas, and Renoir to the present day. Shapiro brings Berthe's world to life, tracing her work through generations of descendants and introducing us to a painter as brilliant and original as her male counterparts across 150 years of triumphs, struggles, passions, animosities, and malevolence."

Justice for Morisot! At least when I was an school we studied her.

Last Dance Before Dawn by Katharine Schellman
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: June 17th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Last Dance Before Dawn is the final book in the luscious, mysterious, and queer Nightingale mystery series by Katharine Schellman, set in 1920s New York.

Vivian Kelly has finally created a home and a family at the glamorous speakeasy known as The Nightingale, where no one cares who you are in the daytime. After all, in the underground world of 1920s New York City, everyone has a secret to keep, and they're on The Nightingale's dance floor to leave those secrets behind. But sometimes it takes more than a dance to escape your past.

When a stranger from Chicago shows up at The Nightingale looking to settle old scores, Vivian and The Nightingale's owner, the mysterious and alluring Honor Huxley, send him packing. They soon discover, though, that the stranger was just a warning. Slowly, the people who have made The Nightingale their home realize that someone is following them. Hunting them. And that someone won't stop until they unravel a mystery that's been cold for years: a missing girl, a boy out for revenge, and a truck full of cash that disappeared in a job gone horribly wrong.

Vivian just wants to protect the people she loves, and she's willing to dig into the dirt of the past to make it happen. But some questions are safer left unanswered, and now that Vivian has built a family for herself, she has more to lose than ever before."

If you've been waiting to start this series, wait no longer, because you can now read the whole thing!

A Novel Murder by E.C. Nevin
Published by: Knopf
Publication Date: June 17th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Welcome to the Killer Lines Crime Fiction Festival, the place for star writers of the genre to meet their adoring fans. But be careful - this year the murders aren't just on the page.

In the quaint English town of Hoslewit, the biggest names in crime writing have congregated to celebrate all things bookish and murderous. Author Jane Hepburn is determined to make her time at the Killer Lines festival worthwhile. This is her chance to change her fortunes and make her fictional Private Detective Baker a household name. And if she has to resort to sneaking into the book tent after hours to rearrange some books so hers are front and center, so be it.

But when Jane encounters the dead body of renowned (and reviled) literary agent Carrie Marks, the festival takes on a decidedly different tone. Joined by Carrie's newest client, debut novelist Natasha Martez, and the agency's hapless intern, Daniel Thurston, Jane decides to put her fictional sleuthing skills to use in the real world - she's going to solve the murder. But the list of suspects is long: seemingly everyone at the festival has a motive to kill Carrie, and the more Jane and her new friends investigate, the closer they come to a dangerous truth - one that's stranger than fiction."

I LOVE murder mysteries set at literary festivals ever since I saw the Midsomer Murders episode "Sins of Commission." 

Fox by Joyce Carol Oates
Published by: Hogarth
Publication Date: June 17th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 672 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Who is Francis Fox? A charming English teacher new to the idyllic Langhorne Academy, Fox beguiles many of his students, their parents, and his colleagues at the elite boarding school, while leaving others wondering where he came from and why his biography is so enigmatic. When two brothers discover Fox's car half-submerged in a pond in a local nature preserve and parts of an unidentified body strewn about the nearby woods, the entire community, including Detective Horace Zwender and his deputy, begins to ask disturbing questions about Francis Fox and who he might really be.

A hypnotic, galloping tale of crime and complicity, revenge and restitution, victim vs. predator, Joyce Carol Oates's Fox illuminates the darkest corners of the human psyche while asking profound moral questions about justice and the response evil demands. A character as magnetically diabolical as Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley and Vladimir Nabokov's Humbert Humbert, Francis Fox enchants and manipulates nearly everyone around him, until at last he meets someone he can't outfox. Written in Oates's trademark intimate, sweeping style, and interweaving multiple points of view, Fox is a triumph of craftsmanship and artistry, a novel as profound as it is propulsive, as moving as it is full of mystery."

Fits right into my broader definition of dark academia. 

The Farmhouse by Chelsea Conradt
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: June 17th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Every woman who has lived on this farm has died. Emily just moved in.

When Emily Hauk's mother dies, it's time for her and her husband, Josh, to finally leave San Francisco. A farm in rural Nebraska is everything they want for a fresh start: clear skies, low costs, and distance from the grief back home.

They should have asked why the farm was for sale.

Three years ago, a teenage girl went missing from the farm. Soon after, the girl's mother mysteriously died. The deeper Emily digs, the more stories she finds of women with a connection to her new home who've met their own dark ends.

The farmhouse was meant to be Emily's fresh start, but with each passing day, her sanctuary slips further away. The barn seems to move throughout her property, as though chasing her. Her mother's favorite music drifts across the corn. She swears she saw blood in one of the farmhand's trucks. And the screams that wake her are not foxes, no matter how many times her husband says otherwise.

Despite Josh's skepticism, Emily feels the darkness that has seeped into the soil of her farm. And if she wants to claim this place as her own, she'll have to find the truth before whatever watches from the cornfield takes her too."

Oh, a barn on the move, like on Haven!

Before Dorothy by Hazel Gaynor
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: June 17th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Long before Dorothy visits Oz, her aunt, Emily Gale, sets off on her own grand adventure, leaving gritty Chicago behind for Kansas and a life that will utterly change her, in this transporting novel from New York Times bestselling author Hazel Gaynor.

Chicago, 1924: Emily and her new husband, Henry, yearn to leave the bustle of Chicago for the promise of their own American dream among the harsh beauty of the prairie. But leaving the city means leaving Emily's beloved sister, Annie, who was once closer to her than anyone in the world.

Kansas, 1932: Emily and Henry have established their new home among the warmth of the farming community in Kansas. Aligned to the fickle fortunes of nature, their lives hold a precarious and hopeful purpose, until tragedy strikes and their orphaned niece, Dorothy, lands on their doorstep.

The wide-eyed child isn't the only thing to disrupt Emily's world. Drought and devastating dust storms threaten to destroy everything, and her much-loved home becomes a place of uncertainty and danger. When the past catches up with the present and old secrets are exposed, Emily fears she will lose the most cherished thing of all: Dorothy.

Bursting with courage and heart, Before Dorothy tells the story of the woman who raised a beloved heroine, and ponders the question: what is the true meaning of home?"

Because every true book lover has wondered about the women who raised our most iconic heroines.

Death on the Caldera by Emily Paxman
Published by: Titan Books
Publication Date: June 17th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"It's Murder on the Orient Express - with witches!

A thrilling blend of fantasy and classic murder mystery, this rollicking adventure with a wide cast of suspects is ideal for those who love both Agatha Christie and V. E. Schwab, and are drawn to stories that take place in a vivid fantasy world.

The Linde siblings - Kellen, Davina, and Morel - are anxious to return to the kingdom of Halgyr before their father dies, leaving Kellen to assume the throne as king. They book tickets on a luxury express train, expecting a swift journey home - but disaster strikes when the train engine explodes, stranding the siblings atop a caldera bubbling with volcanic magic.

The crash triggers Davina's latent witch powers, but her magic disrupts her ability to remember what she was doing when the explosion took place. While a witch would be the prime suspect for the catastrophe, the only ones who knew Davina might become one are her brothers - who never warned her. And, to add insult to injury, somebody is bumping off the surviving train crew and passengers. But it can't be Davina, can it?

While the remaining passengers try to determine who sabotaged the engine and catch the killer, the fractured siblings attempt to stay one step ahead, concealing not only Davina's powers but their own secrets. Luckily, they aren't the only shifty characters on the train...

A thrilling blend of classic murder mystery and fantasy for those who love Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile every bit as much as Fourth Wing and A Court of Thorns and Roses."

This book was written for me. I sometimes can't decide if I want to read a murder mystery or fantasy, and now I don't have the choose!

If We Survive This by Racquel Marie
Published by: Feiwel and Friends
Publication Date: June 17th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The Walking Dead meets Yellowjackets in If We Survive This, a tense and emotional young adult horror novel from award-winning author Racquel Marie about a teen girl leading a group of survivors on a perilous journey during the apocalypse.

Flora Braddock Paz is not the girl who survives. A colorful creative who spends as much time fearing death as she does trying to hide that fear from her loved ones, she's always considered herself weak. But half a year into the global outbreak of a rabies mutation that transforms people into violent, zombielike "rabids," she and her older brother, Cain, are still alive. With their mom dead, their dad missing, and their Los Angeles suburb left desolate, they form a new plan: venture out to the secluded Northern California cabin they vacationed in growing up - their best chance at a safe haven and maybe even seeing their dad again.

The dangers of the world have changed, but so has Flora. Still, their journey up the state is complicated by encounters with familiar faces, hidden truths, new allies, and painful memories of the whole family's final time making this trip the previous year. And for Flora, one thing inevitably remains: No matter how far you run, death is never far behind."

I want to know why the suspect their father is at the cabin...

I Think I'm in Love with an Alien by Ann Aguirre
Published by: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Publication Date: June 17th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Galaxy Quest meets Roswell in this quirky sci-fi rom-com from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Ann Aguirre.

He's stranded. He's desperate. He's not looking for love.

Alien Tamzir Jaarn, a.k.a. Seeker, is paying the price for risking an illicit holiday on an interdicted planet. His ride off-world never showed, and he's been stranded on Earth for nearly a year. His gear is breaking down, food is becoming a problem, and if his camouflage unit fritzes, he'll wind up in a government lab.

But he's met some cool humans online, and they've invited him to the biggest space-themed convention around. Why not make memories with them while he figures out how to get home?

Space Con or bust!

She's nerdy. She's flirty. She's ready for romance.

Jennette Hammond is an endearing weirdo, voted most likely to bang an alien in high school. Her house is full of gray man collectibles, adorable tentacle monsters, and yes, in college, she volunteered for a SETI-type program. Not that she's ever had any close encounters of the sexy, alien kind. Heck, she's never even been able to convince anyone to attend Space Con.

But that's about to change. Finally, she has online friends who have agreed to go, and it will be a romp to remember - and she'll finally put a face to the name of her longtime crush, Seeker.

When alien meets adorkable, they're destined for an out-of-this-world affair..."

I mean, I was sold at Galaxy Quest meets Roswell, but the fact that it's written by Ann Aguirre!?! Perfection!

The Mercy Makers by Tessa Gratton
Published by: Orbit
Publication Date: June 17th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 560 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A talented heretic must decide between the pursuit of forbidden magic, or the ecstasy of forbidden love, in the start of a sweeping, romantic epic fantasy trilogy by New York Times bestselling author Tessa Gratton.

Can an empire trip and fall on a mere strand of silk?

Iriset is a prodigy and an outlaw. The daughter of a powerful criminal, she dons her alter ego Silk to create magical disguises for those in her father's organization, but she longs to do more with her talent: to enhance what it means to be human by giving people wings, night-sight, and other abilities; to unlock the possibilities of gender and parenthood; to cure disease and even to end mortality itself.

Everything changes when her father is captured and sentenced to death. To save him, Iriset must infiltrate the palace and the empire's fanatical ruling family. There, she realizes she has a chance - and an obligation - to bring down the entire corrupt system. She'll have to entangle herself in the lives of the emperor and his sister, getting them to trust and even to love her. But love is a two-way street, and Iriset's own heart holds the most mysterious and impenetrable magic of all."

So much yes here, but damn, that cover is a true work of art. 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Ann Aguirre, B.A. Shapiro, Chelsea Conradt, Claudia Gray, E.C. Nevin, Emily Paxman, Emma Orchard, H.G. Parry, Hazel Gaynor, Joyce Carol Oates, Katharine Schellman, Racquel Marie, Sally Smith, Tessa Gratton

The Silence Factory by Bridget Collins
Published by: William Morrow and Company
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the acclaimed author of the #1 international bestseller The Binding - a captivating story of Gothic suspense about a powerful family, the magical and dangerous silk their fortune is built upon, and the exploitative history they are desperately trying to hide.

1820: Sophia Ashmore-Percy reluctantly accompanies her husband James to a remote Greek island, where he searches for rare biological specimens. Once there, however, she sets on her own voyage of discovery - stumbling across the very creature he is looking for, making an unexpected connection with a local woman, and ultimately reconsidering her marriage, life, and own desires.

Decades later, audiologist Henry Latimer is sent to the home of industrialist Sir Edward Ashmore-Percy and tasked with curing the man's young daughter, Philomel, of her deafness. But Henry, eager to escape a troubled past, quickly becomes obsessed with the fascinating nature of Sir Edward's business: spinning silk with a rare and magical breed of spiders. The extraordinary silk shields sound, offering respite from bustling streets and noisy neighbors. The result is instant tranquility, as wearers experience a soothing calmness. Yet, those within earshot of the outward-facing silk are subjected to eerie murmurs that amplify with proximity. Bystanders suffer the consequences of this unnerving phenomenon, manifesting in physical and mental afflictions ranging from headaches and drowsiness to severe cases of madness.

As Henry becomes entangled in the allure of the silk and Sir Edward's charm, he glimpses a more sinister family history. The closer he ventures into the inner circle of Carthmute House, the more he unravels the horrifying underbelly of the silk business.

With Bridget Collins's signature, stunning prose, The Silence Factory is an equally enthralling and unsettling Gothic story about complicity, desire, and corruption - a novel to lose yourself in."

Oh my, silk capable of inducing insanity? How soon can I visit the looms?

Death and the Visitors by Heather Redmond
Published by: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The ties between a young Mary Shelley, her stepsister Jane "Claire" Clairmont, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and the already-infamous Lord Byron grow increasingly tangled as they're drawn into a dangerous investigation in this vivid historical mystery exploring the birth of teenaged Mary's creative genius and the roots of a real-life trio who would later scandalize 19th century England even as they transformed the literary world.

1814, London Foreign diplomats are descending on London in advance of the Congress of Vienna meetings to formulate a new peace plan for Europe following Napoleon's downfall. Mary and Jane's father, political philosopher William Godwin, is hosting a gathering with an advance party of Russian royal staff. The Russians are enthusiastic followers of Mary's late mother, philosopher and women's rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft, which leads to a lively dinner discussion.

Following their visit, Jane overhears her father reassuring his pushiest creditor that the Russians have pledged diamonds to support his publishing venture, the Juvenile Library, relieving his financial burden. But when Godwin is told the man who promised the diamonds was pulled from the River Thames, his dire financial problems are further complicated by the suspicion that the family may have been involved in the murder.

Stepsisters Mary and Jane resolve to find the real killer to clear the family name. Coming to their aid is Godwin's disciple, the dashing poet Percy Shelley, who seems increasingly devoted to Mary, despite the fact that he is married. And a young woman Jane befriends turns out to be the mistress of the celebrated poet - and infamous lover - Lord Byron.

As both sisters find themselves perhaps dangerously captivated by the poets, their proximity to the truth of the Russian's murder puts them in far greater peril..."

As great a peril as falling in love and having sex on your mother's grave?

The Third Wife of Faraday House by B.R. Myers
Published by: William Morrow and Company
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Two brides band together to unravel the secrets at the heart of a crumbling island manor in this delicious love letter to Gothic fiction from the award-winning author of A Dreadful Splendor.

'Til death do us part...

November 1816: Restless but naive Emeline Fitzpatrick is desperate to escape her stifling life in foggy Halifax. Her guardian is lining up repugnant suitors, but Emeline has her eyes set on a lieutenant in the British Navy. She just needs to persuade him to propose, or her one chance at happiness will be gone forever.

But when Emeline's hopes end in scandal, she finds herself with only one suitor left: the wealthy and enigmatic Captain Graves. Having already lost two wives to tragic circumstances, the widower is seeking a new companion in his cloistered seaside manor, Faraday House. Or at least that is what Emeline has been told, because when she arrives, she is horrified to discover that the second Mrs. Graves, Georgina, is still alive - though fading fast.

Emeline is only certain of two things: something ghastly is afoot at Faraday House, and no one is going to save her. She will have to rely on her own courage, her burgeoning bond with Georgina, and the aid of a handsome reverend with a mysterious past to shed light on a ghostly truth."

Can't blame a man who's lost one wife to line up the third in advance of the death of the second...

A Scandal in Mayfair by Katharine Schellman
Published by: Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Sometimes danger lurks in plain sight, and in the cutthroat London Season socialite Lily Adler must race against time to catch a killer.

Fans of Bridgerton will delight in this Regency-era mystery featuring an intrepid sleuth, plenty of intrigue, and a touch of romance.

London, 1817. The London Season is beginning once more, and Lily Adler's return to her home on Half Moon Street feels different this year. No longer a recent widow, she has a life and friends waiting for her. Lily also has new responsibilities in the form of her protégée Amelia, the sister of her longtime friend Jack Hartley, who is escaping her own brush with scandal and murder.

It doesn't take long for Lily's growing reputation as a lady of quality who can discreetly find what is missing or solve what is puzzling to bring a desperate young woman to her doorstep. But helping her means unraveling a tangled web of family secrets. Soon, a missing will, a dead body and the threat of blackmail leave Lily facing danger every way she turns.

The glittering society of Mayfair conceals many secrets, and the back alleys of London hide even more. Lily Adler will need to find the connection between them quickly if she wants to stop a killer before it's too late."

Bridgerton but better because there's murder!

Miss Morton and the Deadly Inheritance by Catherine Lloyd
Published by: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Social standing is everything in Regency England - and no one knows better than Miss Caroline Morton, a lady's companion from a disgraced line. But when she has a chance to claim what's rightfully hers, the one obstacle in her way is a dangerous murder mystery...

Miss Caroline has doubts when she receives an urgent invitation from a London law firm to discuss her late father's estate. After all, the dishonored Earl of Morton died without a pound sterling to pass on to his two daughters. But while immersing herself in helping Mrs. Frogerton's capricious daughter navigate the high social season, Caroline meets with a cagey lawyer, Mr. Smith, who shares life-altering news - the earl composed a second will, leaving behind an undisclosed fortune.

Mrs. Frogerton, however, is thoroughly unimpressed with the firm's conduct and suspicious of their true motives. Her instinct proves right when the two ladies find the office ransacked, staff in turmoil, and Mr. Smith missing. The full weight of the situation doesn't sink in until Mr. Smith dies following a brutal attack on the street - discovered with an empty envelope bearing Caroline's name in his pocket.

With a connection forming between two deaths at the firm, Caroline can't imagine why anyone would kill twice over the contents of a will. Further complicating matters is the amorous Mr. DeBloom - who claims his mother goaded the earl into making bad investments and promises to link Caroline to her inheritance - and the disappearance of Susan, her younger sister. As Caroline unwittingly becomes the center of both a criminal case and a sordid love triangle, she must tread with caution while seeking the truth...because someone is waiting to reduce her to nothing more than a signature on a dotted line."

It might be Regency but it smacks of Wilkie Collins.

The Four by Ellie Keel
Published by: William Morrow and Company
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"An international bestseller!

One secret could destroy them all. The brand new dark academia debut for 2024 and a gripping tale of revenge, guilt, privilege, and loyalty, perfect for fans of The Secret History and If We Were Villains.

We were always The Four. From our very first day at High Realms.

The four scholarship pupils. Outsiders in a world of power and privilege. And, according to everyone else, we were dangerous.

It would have made our lives a lot easier if Marta had simply pushed our prefect Genevieve out of our bedroom window that day. Certainly, it would have been tragic. She would have died instantly.

But Marta didn't push her then, or - if you choose to believe me - at any other time. If she had, all of what we went through would not have happened.

I've told this story as clearly as I could - as rationally as I've been able, in the circumstances, to achieve. I don't regret what we did. And I would do it all again."

Not just the dark academia book but THE book I've been hearing buzz about all year.

Her Last Summer by Emily Freud
Published by: Quercus Publishing
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"No body. No crime?

Twenty years ago, Mari vanished while backpacking through Thailand with her boyfriend, Luke. He was accused of murder, but has always insisted he's innocent. Besides, her body was never found.

Now, he's finally ready to talk. And filmmaker Cassidy Chambers wants to be the one to uncover what really happened, back then, in the dark of the jungle.

But as she delves deeper into the past, Cassidy begins to fear what lies ahead, and the secrets buried along the way."

I love mysterious cold cases.

Sacrificial Animals by Kailee Pedersen
Published by: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Inspired by Kailee Pedersen's own journey being adopted from Nanning, China in 1996 and growing up on a farm in Nebraska, this rich and atmospheric supernatural horror debut explores an ancient Chinese mythology.

The last thing Nick Morrow expected to receive was an invitation from his father to return home. When he left rural Nebraska behind, he believed he was leaving everything there, including his abusive father, Carlyle, and the farm that loomed so large in memory, forever.

But neither Nick nor his brother Joshua, disowned for marrying Emilia, a woman of Asian descent, can ignore such summons from their father, who hopes for a deathbed reconciliation. Predictably, Joshua and Carlyle quickly warm to each other while Nick and Emilia are left to their own devices. Nick puts the time to good use and his flirtation with Emilia quickly blooms into romance. Though not long after the affair turns intimate, Nick begins to suspect that Emilia's interest in him may have sinister, and possibly even ancient, motivations.

Punctuated by scenes from Nick's adolescent years, when memories of a queer awakening and a shadowy presence stalking the farm altered the trajectory of his life forever, Sacrificial Animals explores the violent legacy of inherited trauma and the total collapse of a family in its wake."

Yep, here for the total family collapse.

She Who Knows by Nnedi Okorafor
Published by: Daw Books
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 176 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Part science fiction, part fantasy, and entirely infused with West African culture and spirituality, this novella offers an intimate glimpse into the life of a teenager whose coming of age will herald a new age for her world. Set in the universe Africanfuturist luminary Nnedi Okorafor first introduced in the World Fantasy Award-winning Who Fears Death, this is the first in the She Who Knows trilogy.

When there is a call, there is often a response.

Najeeba knows.

She has had The Call. But how can a 13-year-old girl have the Call? Only men and boys experience the annual call to the Salt Roads. What's just happened to Najeeba has never happened in the history of her village. But it's not a terrible thing, just strange. So when she leaves with her father and brothers to mine salt at the Dead Lake, there's neither fanfare nor protest. For Najeeba, it's a dream come true: travel by camel, open skies, and a chance to see a spectacular place she's only heard about. However, there must have been something to the rule, because Najeeba's presence on the road changes everything and her family will never be the same.

Small, intimate, up close, and deceptively quiet, this is the beginning of the Kponyungo Sorceress."

I love that acceptance leads to change.

Asunder by Kerstin Hall
Published by: Tordotcom
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Sabriel meets Witch King in Nommo Award finalist Kerstin Hall's beguiling new standalone novel. A LitHub most anticipated book of 2024.

We choose our own gods here.

Karys Eska is a deathspeaker, locked into an irrevocable compact with Sabaster, a terrifying eldritch being - three-faced, hundred-winged, unforgiving - who has granted her the ability to communicate with the newly departed. She pays the rent by using her abilities to investigate suspicious deaths around the troubled city she calls home. When a job goes sideways and connects her to a dying stranger with some very dangerous secrets, her entire world is upended.

Ferain is willing to pay a ludicrous sum of money for her help. To save him, Karys inadvertently binds him to her shadow, an act that may doom them both. If they want to survive, they will need to learn to trust one another. Together, they must journey to the heart of a faded empire, all the while haunted by arcane horrors, and the unquiet ghosts of their pasts.

And all too soon, Karys knows her debts will come due."

Isn't it wonderful to sometimes just pick up a magnificent fantasy that isn't part of a series?

My Salty Mary by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows
Published by: Harperteen
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Perfect for fans of The Princess Bride and A Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue, New York Times bestselling authors Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows are back with a fantastical, romantical, and piratical historical fantasy remix that marries the story of The Little Mermaid with the life and times of infamous lady pirate Mary Read.

Don't call this mermaid "little" - call her "captain," unless you want to walk the plank.

Mary is in love with the so-called prince of Charles Town, except he doesn't love her back. Which is inconvenient. Since she's a mermaid, being brokenhearted means she'll - poof! - turn into sea-foam.

But instead, Mary finds herself pulled out of the sea and up onto a pirate ship. To survive, she joins them. But Mary isn't willing to just sing the yo-ho-hos. She wants the pirate life, all of it, and she's ready to make a splash...by becoming captain. But when Blackbeard dies suddenly, Mary has a chance to become so much more: Pirate King...or Queen. She won't let anyone stop her - not Blackbeard's cute son, not her best friend from back under the sea who's having a bit too much fun with his new legs, and certainly not everyone who says she can't be a pirate just because she's a girl.

She may not be the best man for the job, but she'll definitely prove that she's worth her salt."

If you watched and fell in love with My Lady Jane and are desperately awaiting a season two pickup, good news, the authors who wrote that book have written tons of others, including this new one!

The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki
Published by: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 240 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Translated from the Japanese bestseller, a charming and magical novel that reminds us it's never too late to follow our stars.

In Japan, cats are a symbol of good luck. As the myth goes, if you are kind to them, they'll one day return the favor. And if you are kind to the right cat, you might just find yourself invited to a mysterious coffee shop under a glittering Kyoto moon.

This particular coffee shop is like no other. It has no fixed location, no fixed hours, and it seemingly appears at random.

It's also run by talking cats.

While customers at the Full Moon Coffee Shop partake in cakes and coffees and teas, the cats also consult their star charts, offering cryptic wisdom, and letting them know where their lives veered off course.

Every person who visits the shop has been feeling more than a little lost. For a down-on-her-luck screenwriter, a romantically stuck movie director, a hopeful hairstylist, and a technologically challenged website designer, the coffee shop's feline guides will set them back on their fated paths. For there is a very special reason the shop appeared to each of them..."

I want to go to there.

Love and Other Conspiracies by Mallory Marlowe
Published by: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The hardest thing for a paranormal conspiracy theorist and a web series producer to believe in is finding love in this swoony debut romantic comedy.

Hallie Barrett's life has imploded after she's dumped by her hotshot ex, who also happens to be her coworker and the star of the online series she was producing. Without a new show to present for the company competition, she'll be out of a job. But inspiration can come from the strangest places...like the most handsome guy she's ever seen passionately discussing Bigfoot on a late-night docuseries.

Hayden Hargrove made a name for himself as a cryptid expert on his hit podcast, and is intrigued by the plucky, blue-haired producer who offers him the opportunity to lead his own web show. When the production team sees that Hayden's solo on-screen presence is bad enough to make a ghost blanch, Hallie jumps on camera too, hitting him (and his cryptids) with a healthy dose of skepticism - and enough chemistry to electrify their show to the top of the competition.

As Hayden and Hallie investigate the unknown, they unearth feelings for each other that shake their beliefs to the core. In their search for Mothman, aliens, and the truth, the most elusive discovery might just be learning to love again."

Aw, cryptid love.

Rise and Divine by Lana Harper
Published by: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"To save both her town and the woman who loves her against all odds, a witch haunted by loss must reckon with her turbulent past, in the next magical romance in the Witches of Thistle Grove series by New York Times bestselling author Lana Harper.

Even in a family of chaotic necromancers, Daria "Dasha" Avramov has always been an outlier. An event planner at the Arcane Emporium occult megastore, Dasha is also a devil eater: a rare necromantic witch with an affinity for banishing demons and traversing the veil, the boundary between this realm and the next.

Still grieving the loss of both beloved parents years ago, and plagued by a dangerous obsession with the world beyond the veil, Dasha is fiery yet guarded, an expert at dodging commitment. Her worst regret is a devastating breakup with the wise, empathetic, and sensual Ivy Thorn, her event-planning counterpart at Honeycake Orchards, and probably the love of Dasha's life. Dasha has managed to break Ivy's heart not once, but twice, so things are more than a little tense between them.

When they're thrown together to plan the Cavalcade - a month-long festival celebrating Thistle Grove's ceremonial founding with dazzling spectacles held by the town's witch families - Dasha hopes that the third time might be the charm, while Ivy refuses to let herself be hurt again. As they confront the pain and passion lingering between them, Dasha and Ivy must also stand against an otherworldly threat unlike anything Thistle Grove has faced before."

Oh, what is with me falling for books with necromancers lately?

The Divide by Morgan Richter
Published by: Knopf Publishing Group
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A failed actress turned grifting psychic searches for her missing doppelgänger and is plunged into a web of murder and corruption among Hollywood A-listers.

When Jenny St. John was eighteen, she moved to Los Angeles from her rural midwestern hometown and scored the lead role in an independent film called The Divide. Under the intimate direction of young auteur Serge Grumet, Jenny was on her way to becoming the next indie darling. But then the movie tanked, and Jenny never caught a second break. Now, two decades later, after floundering on the fringes of the entertainment industry, she's barely keeping afloat running a low-level grift as a psychic life coach.

But when news surfaces that Serge has been murdered, Jenny's life is turned upside down. Unbeknownst to Jenny, Serge's ex-wife, painter Gena Santos, looks alarmingly similar to Jenny. So much so that when Gena goes missing, the cops think Jenny is Gena.

Jenny finds herself pulled into Gena's world and manages to leverage both her resemblance to Gena and her faux psychic abilities to infiltrate the affluent yet unstable inner circle of friends, which include a Korean pop idol-turned-social media star and an Oscar-winning actress-turned-wellness guru. Soon Jenny's search to find Gena unearths dark secrets about her own past while putting her squarely in the sights of a killer."

A Hollywood version of The Likeness!

A Fatal Feast at Bramsford Manor by Darci Hannah
Published by: Kensington Cozies
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the author of the charming Beacon Bakeshop Mysteries, the first in a new set at a haunted English manor and featuring chef Bunny MacBride, whose big break on her first reality TV show may be cut short by an unscripted murder...

It isn't how chef Bridget "Bunny" MacBride imagined her own cooking show unfolding. But, if preparing historic meals with a modern flair is what it takes to get her cooking on the air, she can deliver, even if her dinner guest is a ghost. That's the premise of the new reality TV show Food and Spirits, where Chef Bunny teams up with ghost hunter Brett Bloom and psychic medium Giff McGrady to visit haunted locales around the world and tempt lingering spirits back to the table with a beloved meal. For their first episode, the Food and Spirits team sets off to investigate Bramsford Manor, a historic house turned famously haunted hotel, in picturesque Hampshire, England. The sprawling estate is said to be home to the Mistletoe Bride, a young woman who died in the 18th century, the victim of a tragic accident on her Christmas wedding night.

Disliking spooks but loving food, Bunny leaves the spectral search to the pros and focuses on the feast, creating a traditional English holiday wedding dinner, complete with a gorgeous prime rib, Yorkshire pudding, and rustic apple tarts. It's a sumptuous meal she hopes will entice the ghostly Mistletoe Bride to take a seat and join them while the cameras roll. But Bunny's task is made more difficult when someone steals a boning knife from her custom kit. Alas, when the blade finally turns up again - in the chest of an all-too-human dinner guest - Bunny's woes only grow as she is named a lead suspect in the case! Now, with a haunted house full of living residents, staff, and crew, Bunny will need the help of Brett, Giff, and her clairvoyant Grandma Mac, to solve this murder before the manor gains another ghost!"

It's The Supersizers... meets Ghosts!

Murder at Vinland by Alyssa Maxwell
Published by: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Reporter and sleuth Emma Cross Andrews must stop a bold poisoner who is targeting the society wives of the Four Hundred in Gilded Age Newport, Rhode Island...

August 1901: A fundraiser for a new Rhode Island Audubon Society brings Emma to Vinland, the Viking-themed seaside home of her relative, Florence Vanderbilt Twombly, where the guest of honor is Edith Roosevelt, wife of Vice President Theodore Roosevelt. Listening to the speakers and observing the ladies in attendance, Emma is struck by the contrast of the Viking warrior-inspired elements in the house and the admirable but admittedly genteel cause of bird protection. Vinland bears the name of the Vikings' first landfall in North America, but in this room today there is most assuredly no one to fear.

Emma's observation of harmless philanthropy is proven wrong the following morning when one of Mrs. Twombly's houseguests from the luncheon becomes mysteriously and dangerously ill. Accompanying police detective Jesse Whyte, Emma discovers a box of petit fours supposedly sent by Mrs. Roosevelt. They promptly rule out the Second Lady as a suspect, but someone has poisoned the cakes.

Soon another box of desserts as well as letters tainted with ink containing caustic toxins show up at other grand Newport cottages. Are the ladies from the luncheon being targeted? Emma and Jesse must sort through possible motives and means because now more than the birds need protection..."

Getting the Hallmark movie wasn't enough this year. Yeah for a new volume!

The Paris Gown by Christine Wells
Published by: William Morrow and Company
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From perennially popular historical novelist Christine Wells, the delightful tale of three young women in 1950s Paris who share a single dazzling Christian Dior gown.

Paris, 1955

Three friends - Claire, Gina, and Margot - who parted as very young women with their whole lives ahead of them, reunite in Paris years later, determined to start life anew.

Parisian Claire has been working hard to become a Michelin-starred chef one day, but ever since the heady time she spent in the company of socialites Gina and Margot, her dream has been to own a Dior gown. This seemed like a far-off fantasy, until the eccentric and wealthy Madame Vaughn, who lives above Claire's family brasserie, abruptly leaves Paris, asking Claire to mind her apartment. More bafflingly, Madame Vaughn also makes Claire a very special gift: a stunning Dior gown.

Meanwhile Gina, a cool American blue blood, lands on Claire's doorstep nursing a broken heart and a broken engagement after her father lost all of the family money in a risky business venture. A journalist aspiring to be a novelist, Gina has returned to Paris in the hopes of pursuing her dream. But when her father begs her to attend the United States Embassy ball in the hopes of persuading Hal Sanders, her former fiancé, to invest in her father's new business venture, she is torn. She wants to help her father, but seeing Hal again will be exquisitely painful. And what on earth is she going to wear?

Warm-hearted Claire insists Gina wear the Dior gown to the ball, and after some hesitation, Gina accepts. At Dior for Gina's fitting, who should assist them but Margot, the friend they thought had gone back to Australia to be married. But Margot is living in Paris and working at Dior under an assumed name, and clearly, she is not happy to have been found.

Is their close friendship at an end? Or will the wonder and delight of the Dior gown bring these young women back together?

Gorgeous, perfectly fitted, lustrous and luxurious, the Dior gown has the power to change lives - as these three remarkable women are about to discover..."

The only version of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants I'm interested in!

By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult
Published by: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 544 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the New York Times bestselling co-author of Mad Honey comes an "inspiring" (Elle) novel about two women, centuries apart - one of whom is the real author of Shakespeare's plays - who are both forced to hide behind another name.

Young playwright Melina Green has just written a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor Emilia Bassano. But seeing it performed is unlikely, in a theater world where the playing field isn't level for women. As Melina wonders if she dares risk failure again, her best friend takes the decision out of her hands and submits the play to a festival under a male pseudonym.

In 1581, young Emilia Bassano is a ward of English aristocrats. Her lessons on languages, history, and writing have endowed her with a sharp wit and a gift for storytelling, but like most women of her day, she is allowed no voice of her own. Forced to become a mistress to the Lord Chamberlain, who oversees all theatre productions in England, Emilia sees firsthand how the words of playwrights can move an audience. She begins to form a plan to secretly bring a play of her own to the stage - by paying an actor named William Shakespeare to front her work.

Told in intertwining timelines, By Any Other Name, a sweeping tale of ambition, courage, and desire centers two women who are determined to create something beautiful despite the prejudices they face. Should a writer do whatever it takes to see her story live on...no matter the cost? This remarkable novel, rooted in primary historical sources, ensures the name Emilia Bassano will no longer be forgotten."

We're back to the Shakespeare was a woman. And yes, it changes every few years, but this is a nice twist with the modern timeline.

The Last Witch in Edinburgh by Marielle Thompson
Published by: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"For fans of Sarah Penner's The Lost Apothecary and Alix E. Harrow's The Once and Future Witches, this lush, atmospheric novel from the author of Where Ivy Dares to Grow blends witchcraft, queer love, a vibrant Edinburgh setting, and Scottish folklore for a propulsive and emotional story exploring what it means to resist the patriarchy and find your voice.

In an alternate Edinburgh of 1824, every woman lives in fear that she will be the next one hanged for witchcraft. All it takes is invoking the anger, or the desire, of the wrong person. Nellie Duncan, beautiful and unwed, keeps to herself until she encounters the Rae Women's Apothecary. There, fiery Jean Rae and the other women provide cures and teach others that they too can aid the winter deity, the Cailleach, embracing her characteristic independence, agency, and craft, in turn becoming witches themselves.

Nellie finds a place and a purpose at the shop, and a blossoming romance with Jean, as she learns about nature-based craft and a witch's ability to return to life after death. But the Cailleach has an ancient enemy intent on stripping the power of the deity and all her witches, leaving a wake of patriarchal violence and destruction. When heart-breaking disaster strikes, Nellie flees and spends the next two centuries hiding from the world - until love gives her the courage and the motivation to come back.

Nellie's past is waiting for her there, and hanging witches is no longer the only means of oppression. But this time, Nellie refuses to run - either from her foes, or from her resolve to awaken others to the unimaginable power that can come with fighting the patriarchy in its many forms - and finding one's own magical inner-strength."

I'd like to hide away for a century or two...

The Royal Palaces: Secrets and Scandals by Kate Williams and James Oses
Published by: Frances Lincoln
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 240 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Royal expert and TV historian Kate Williams opens the doors to 30 palaces, castles and houses that have been connected with the British royals over the centuries.

Well known for her expert insights in the media and on countless royal documentaries, Kate takes you on a tour of the UK's most fascinating palaces, past and present, to unveil the scandalous and little-known stories hidden between their walls.

Included in the book are such famous royal residences as Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, but also lesser-known locations such as Falkland Palace and Beaumaris Castle. Covering the breadth of British history, there are tales from the medieval era to the present.

Among the palaces included are:

• St James's Palace, wedding venue for the disastrous union of Caroline of Brunswick and the debauched Prince of Wales, George IV, who turned up drunk and already secretly married.
• Holyroodhouse, where staff once ran a flourishing side hustle, charging visitors money to see the bloodstains from the murder of Mary, Queen of Scots' secretary in the queen's chamber.
• Whitehall Palace and Banqueting Hall, home to Charles II's secret laboratory, where he tried to create an elixir of youth using human skulls.
• Tower of London, the site of the unsolved mystery of the 'Princes in the Tower' - the disappearance of the two young sons of Edward IV.
• Glamis Castle, the inspiration for Shakespeare's Macbeth.
• Greenwich Palace, where Elizabeth I survived an assassination attempt when poison was placed in her saddle.
• Windsor Castle, where princesses Elizabeth and Margaret were evacuated to during the Second World War, with a secret biscuit tin full of the Crown Jewels.
• Marlborough House, home of Sarah Churchill, the passionate confidante of Queen Anne, before her cousin Abigail usurped her as the new favourite.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alyssa Maxwell, B.R. Myers, Bridget Collins, Catherine Lloyd, Heather Redmond, Kate Williams, Katharine Schellman, Kerstin Hall, Lana Harper, Mai Mochizuki, Marielle Thompson, My Lady Jane, Nnedi Okorafor

Eruption by Michael Crichton and James Patterson
Published by: Little Brown and Company
Publication Date: June 4th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The biggest thriller of the year: A history-making eruption is about to destroy the Big Island of Hawaii. But a secret held for decades by the US military is far more terrifying than any volcano.

The master of the techno-blockbuster joins forces with the master of the modern thriller to create the most anticipated mega bestseller in years.

Michael Crichton, creator of Jurassic Park, ER, Twister, and Westworld, had a passion project he'd been pursuing for years, ahead of his untimely passing in 2008. Knowing how special it was, his wife, Sherri Crichton, held back his notes and the partial manuscript until she found the right author to complete it: James Patterson, the world's most popular storyteller."

I mean, I can't contain my excitement! A NEW MICHAEL CRICHTON BOOK! Yeah yeah, and there's James Patterson too.

Looking for Smoke by K.A. Cobell
Published by: Heartdrum
Publication Date: June 4th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In her powerful debut novel, Looking for Smoke, author K.A. Cobell (Blackfeet) weaves loss, betrayal, and complex characters into a thriller that will illuminate, surprise, and engage readers until the final word. A must-pick for readers who enjoy books by Angeline Boulley and Karen McManus!

When local girl Loren includes Mara in a traditional Blackfeet Giveaway to honor Loren's missing sister, Mara thinks she'll finally make some friends on the Blackfeet reservation.

Instead, a girl from the Giveaway, Samantha White Tail, is found murdered.

Because the four members of the Giveaway group were the last to see Samantha alive, each becomes a person of interest in the investigation. And all of them - Mara, Loren, Brody, and Eli - have a complicated history with Samantha.

Despite deep mistrust, the four must now take matters into their own hands and clear their names. Even though one of them may be the murderer."

If you're feeling the void left by Reservation Dogs and Dark Winds, this is for you.

The Noh Mask Murder by Akimitsu Takagi
Published by: Pushkin Vertigo
Publication Date: June 4th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A bewildering locked-room murder occurs as an amateur crime writer investigates strange events in the Chizurui mansion in this prizewinning classic Japanese mystery.

This ingeniously constructed masterpiece, written by one of Japan's most celebrated crime writers and translated into English for the first time, is perfect for locked-room mystery fans who can't resist a breathtaking conclusion.

In the Chizurui family mansion, a haunting presence casts a shadow over its residents. By night, an eerie figure, clad in a sinister Hannya mask is seen roaming around the house. An amateur murder mystery writer, Akimitsu Takagi, is sent to investigate - but his investigation takes a harrowing turn as tragedy strikes the Chizurui family.

Within the confines of a locked study, the head of the family is found dead, with only an ominous Hannya mask lying on the floor by his side and the lingering scent of jasmine in the air as clues to his mysterious murder.

As Takagi delves deeper into the perplexing case, he discovers a tangled web of secrets and grudges. Can he discover the link between the family and the curse of the Hannya mask? Who was the person who called the undertaker and asked for three coffins on the night of the murder? And do those three coffins mean the curse of the Hannya mask is about to strike again?

The Noh Mask Murder's legendary ending offers locked-room mystery fans the perfect coda to an ingeniously constructed mystery."

Locked-room mysteries are my catnip and comfort read all in one.

The Queen of Poisons by Robert Thorogood
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: June 4th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The Marlow Murder Club is on the hunt for a killer...

Geoffrey Lushington, Mayor of Marlow, dies suddenly during a town council meeting. When traces of aconite - also known as the queen of poisons - are found in his coffee cup, the police realize he was murdered. But who did it? And why?

The police bring Judith, Suzie, and Becks in to investigate the murder as civilian advisors right from the start, so they have free rein to interview suspects and follow the evidence to their heart's content...which is perfect because Judith has no time for rules and standard procedure. But this case has the Marlow Murder Club stumped. Who would want to kill the affable mayor of Marlow? How did they even get the poison into his coffee? And is anyone else in danger? The Marlow Murder Club is about to face their most difficult case yet..."

Time to get to know the Marlow Murder Club before their television debut!

Death in Le Jardin by Ian Moore
Published by: Farrago
Publication Date: June 4th, 2024
Format: Kindle, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the bestselling author of Death and Croissants comes a murder mystery perfect for fans of Richard Osman, Julia Chapman, or MC Beaton.

On the surface, Richard Ainsworth has life where he wants it. Middle-aged navel gazing and Olympic levels of procrastination are exactly what rural life in France should be about.

Then crisis hits his posh B and B when redoubtable housekeeper, Madame Tablier, is accused of murder. Even more surprisingly, it's the murder of a former fiancé, turned brother-in-law. None of which the stubborn old woman denies.

Valérie d'Orçay is having none of it and their investigation leads them to a strange tourist garden village, where backbiting, recriminations and even former colleagues provide a deadly scenario more tangled than knotweed."

I mean, I think Madame Tablier would be totally justified in the killing, but that's just my opinion.

Death at the Dress Rehearsal by Stuart Douglas
Published by: Titan Books (UK)
Publication Date: June 4th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Two ageing actors attempt to solve a murder after a body is found on the set in this witty, fun whodunnit, perfect for fans of Thursday Murder Club and Death and Croissants.

In 1970, on the set of downmarket sitcom 'Floggit and Leggit', leading man Edward Lowe stumbles across the body of a woman, apparently the victim of a tragic drowning accident. But there's something about her that rings the faintest of bells in Edward's head and, convinced the woman has been murdered, he enlists the help of his co-star John le Breton to investigate further. Crossing the country and back again during gaps in filming, the two men uncover both a series of murders in the modern day, and links to another unfortunate death during the War. As the body count mounts, Edward and John face a race against time to save the innocent victims of a serial killer..."

If you're a fan of Elly Griffiths Brighton Mysteries you'll love Stuart Douglas's Lowe and Le Breton. The theatrical has been switched for the televisual with elderly actors legging it about the country. You will be impatiently waiting for more.

The Last Secret of Lily Adams by Sara Blaydes
Published by: Lake Union Publishing
Publication Date: June 4th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 332 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The death of a legendary actress reveals a wealth of Hollywood secrets in a breathtaking novel about betrayal, rivalry, and the punishing brutality of fame.

One of the brightest stars of Hollywood's golden age was Lily Adams, the beloved picture of all-American innocence. Why she suddenly vanished from the spotlight was a mystery even to those closest to her.

Upon Lily's death seventy years later, her granddaughter, Carolyn Prior, struggles to understand a woman she loved but never really knew. Then, sifting through the memorabilia of a once-glamorous career, Carolyn comes across a letter from her grandmother. It's the trembling admission of a secret life and a story that begins and ends with superstar Stella Lane, Lily's archrival of the silver screen - a bombshell who was brutally murdered.

As Carolyn unearths her grandmother's connection to the notorious unsolved slaying, her life collides with Lily's in the most shocking ways. And with each stunning new revelation, Carolyn must decide how much she is willing to risk to unlock the truth."

You risk everything for the truth! EVERYTHING!

The Comfort of Ghosts by Jacqueline Winspear
Published by: Soho Crime
Publication Date: June 4th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 360 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A milestone in historical mystery fiction as Maisie Dobbs takes her final bow!

The Comfort of Ghosts completes Jacqueline Winspear's ground-breaking and internationally bestselling series.

Psychologist and investigator Maisie Dobbs unravels a profound mystery from her past in a war-torn nation grappling with its future.

London, 1945: Four adolescent orphans with a dark wartime history are squatting in a vacant Belgravia mansion - the owners having fled London under heavy Luftwaffe bombing. Psychologist and Investigator Maisie Dobbs visits the mansion on behalf of the owners and discovers that a demobilized soldier, gravely ill and reeling from his experiences overseas, has taken shelter with the group.

Maisie's quest to bring comfort to the youngsters and the ailing soldier brings to light a decades-old mystery concerning Maisie's first husband, James Compton, who was killed while piloting an experimental fighter aircraft. As Maisie unravels the threads of her dead husband's life, she is forced to examine her own painful past and question beliefs she has always accepted as true.

The award-winning Maisie Dobbs series has garnered hundreds of thousands of followers, readers drawn to a woman who is of her time, yet familiar in ours - and who inspires with her resilience and capacity for endurance. This final assignment of her own choosing not only opens a new future for Maisie and her family, but serves as a fascinating portrayal of the challenges facing the people of Britain at the close of the Second World War."

It feels like yesterday I picked up the first book in this series. Here's to a fitting sendoff and past secrets uncovered!

The Last Note of Warning by Katharine Schellman
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: June 4th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The Last Note of Warning is the third in the luscious, mysterious, and queer Nightingale mystery series by Katharine Schellman, set in 1920s New York.

Prohibition is a dangerous time to be a working-class woman in New York City, but Vivian Kelly has finally found some measure of stability and freedom. By day, she's a respectable shop assistant, delivering luxurious dresses to the city's wealthy and elite. At night, she joins the madcap revelry of New York's underworld, serving illegal drinks and dancing into the morning at a secretive, back-alley speakeasy known as the Nightingale. She's found, if not love, then something like it with her bootlegger sweetheart, Leo, even if she can't quite forget the allure of the Nightingale's sultry owner, Honor Huxley.

Then the husband of a wealthy client is discovered dead in his study, and Vivian was the last known person to see him alive. With the police and the press both eager to name a culprit in the high-profile case, she finds herself the primary murder suspect.

She can't flee town without endangering the people she loves, but Vivian isn't the sort of girl to go down without a fight. She'll cash in every favor she has from the criminals she calls friends to prove she had no connection to the dead man. But she can't prove what isn't true.

The more Vivian digs into the man's life, and as the police close in on her, the harder it is to avoid the truth: someone she knows wanted him dead. And the best way to get away with murder is to set up a girl like Vivian to take the fall."

Here's a hint, never be the fall guy, or gal as the case may be.

The Meiji Guillotine Murders by Futaro Yamada
Published by: Pushkin Vertigo
Publication Date: June 4th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A classic Japanese mystery - a pair of sleuths investigate a series of bloody murders in 19th century Tokyo.

A captivating locked room murder mystery perfect for fans of Stuart Turton and Janice Hallett.

Japan, 1869. A time of reform and rebellion.

Detectives Kazuki and Kawaji are assigned to investigate a series of seemingly impossible murders. Together with the help of a mysterious shrine maiden, can they solve each gruesome death and piece together the dark connection between them?

Taking us deep into the heart of 19th century Tokyo, The Meiji Guillotine Murders is a fiendish murder mystery from one of Japan's greatest crime writers."

What did I JUST SAY about locked-room murders? Catnip!

In the Hour of Crows by Dana Elmendorf
Published by: Mira Books
Publication Date: June 4th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In a small town in Appalachia, people paint their doorways blue to keep spirits away. Black ferns grow where death will follow. And Weatherly Opal Wilder is a Death Talker.

When called upon, she can talk the death out of the dying and save their lives - only once, never twice. But this truly unique gift comes at a price, rooting Weatherly to people who only want her around when they need her and resent her backwater ways when they don't.

Weatherly's cousin Adaire also has a gift: she's a Scryer and can see the future reflected back in dark surfaces. Right before she is killed in an accident, Adaire saw something unnerving, and that's why Weatherly believes she was murdered - never thinking for a moment that it was an accident. But when Weatherly, for the first time, is unable to talk the death out of the mayor's son, the whole town suspects she is out for revenge, that she wouldn't save him.

With the help of clues Adaire left behind and her family's Granny Witch recipe box, Weatherly sets out to find the truth behind her cousin's death, whatever it takes.

Imbued with magic, witchery, and suspense, Dana Elmendorf's In the Hour of Crows is a thrilling tale of friendship, identity, and love."

Personally, I'm thinking the mayor's son had something to do with her cousin's murder. Makes sense...

A Botanist's Guide to Society and Secrets by Kate Khavari
Published by: Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date: June 4th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Brilliant botanist Saffron Everleigh is ready for her next thrilling adventure in the newest installment of Kate Khavari's mesmerizing historical mystery series.

London, 1923. Returning from Paris, botanical researcher Saffron Everleigh finds that her former love interest Alexander Ashton's brother, Adrian, is being investigated for murder. A Russian scientist working for the English government has been poisoned, and expired in Adrian's train compartment. Alexander asks Saffron to put in a good word for Adrian with Inspector Green. Despite her unresolved feelings for Alexander, Saffron begins to unravel mysteries surrounding the dead scientist.

As if a murder case weren't enough, her best friend Elizabeth's war-hero brother, Nick, arrives in town and takes an immediate interest in Saffron. Saffron learns Alexander has been keeping secrets from her, including a connection to Nick, who Saffron and Elizabeth begin to suspect is more than he seems.

When another scientist is found dead, Saffron agrees to go undercover at the government laboratory. Risking her career and her safety, she learns there are many more interested parties and dangerous secrets to uncover than she'd realized. But some secrets, Saffron will find, are better left undiscovered."

Lots of familial connection causing chaos!

Isabel and the Rogue by Liana De La Rosa
Published by: Berkley Books
Publication Date: June 4th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"When a Mexican heiress defies Victorian society to protect her country a British war hero makes it his new mission to protect her...

Isabel Luna Valdés has long since resigned herself to being the "forgotten" Luna sister. But thanks to familial connections to the Mexican ambassador in London, wallflower Isabel is poised to unearth any British intelligence hidden by the ton that might aid Mexico during the French Occupation. Though she slips easily from crowded ballrooms into libraries and private studies, Isabel's search is hampered by trysting couples and prowling rogues - including the rakish Captain Sirius Dawson.

As a covert agent for the British Home Office, Sirius makes a game of earning the aristocracy's confidence. He spends his days befriending foolish politicians and seducing well-born ladies in order to learn their secrets. But after he spies a certain sharp-tongued Luna sister lurking in the shadows where no proper debutante should venture, it's clear Sirius is outmatched, outwitted, and soon to be outmaneuvered by the one woman he can't resist.

Their mutual attraction is undeniable, but when Isabel discovers private correspondence that could turn the tide of political turmoil in Mexico, she's willing to do whatever it takes to protect her country - even if this means ignoring her heart and courting danger..."

Oh, but every good heroine knows that ignoring your heart works out in the end!

Enlightenment by Sarah Perry
Published by: Mariner Books
Publication Date: June 4th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A dazzling new work of literary fiction from the author of The Essex Serpent, a story of love and astronomy told over the course of twenty years through the lives of two improbable best friends.

Thomas Hart and Grace Macaulay have lived all their lives in the small Essex town of Aldleigh. Though separated in age by three decades, the pair are kindred spirits - torn between their commitment to religion and their desire to explore the world beyond their small Baptist community.

It is two romantic relationships that will rend their friendship, and in the wake of this rupture, Thomas develops an obsession with a vanished nineteenth-century astronomer said to haunt a nearby manor, and Grace flees Aldleigh entirely for London. Over the course of twenty years, by coincidence and design, Thomas and Grace will find their lives brought back into orbit as the mystery of the vanished astronomer unfolds into a devastating tale of love and scientific pursuit. Thomas and Grace will ask themselves what it means to love and be loved, what is fixed and what is mutable, how much of our fate is predestined and written in the stars, and whether they can find their way back to each other.

A thrillingly ambitious novel of friendship, faith, and unrequited love, rich in symmetry and symbolism, Enlightenment is a shimmering wonder of a book and Sarah Perry's finest work to date."

Seeing as I'm more than a little obsessed with The Essex Serpent, this is a book I've been dying for!

All the Summers in Between by Brooke Lea Foster
Published by: Gallery Books
Publication Date: June 4th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"When wealthy, impulsive summer girl Margot meets hardworking and steady local girl Thea in the summer of 1967, the unlikely pair become fast friends, working alongside one another in a record store and spending every spare moment together. But after an unspeakable incident on one devastating August night, they don't see one another for ten years...until Margot suddenly reappears in Thea's life, begging for help and harboring more than one dangerous secret. Thea can't bring herself to refuse her beloved friend - but she also knows she can't fully trust her either.

Unfulfilled as a housewife, Thea enjoys the dazzling sense of adventure Margot brings to her life, but will the truth of what happened to them that fateful summer ruin everything? Testing the boundaries of how far she'll go for a friend, Thea is forced to reckon with her uncertain future while trying to decide if some friends are meant to remain in the past.

Set in the dual timelines of 1967 and 1977, All the Summers In Between is at once a mesmerizing portrait of a complex friendship, a delicious glimpse into a bygone Hamptons, and a powerful coming-of-age for two young women during a transformative era."

And here I am hoping it's a historical fiction version of Empire Records... 

When Women Ran Fifth Avenue by Julie Satow
Published by: Doubleday Books
Publication Date: June 4th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A glittering portrait of the golden age of American department stores and of three visionary women who led them, from the award-winning author of The Plaza.

The twentieth century American department store: a palace of consumption where every wish could be met under one roof - afternoon tea, a stroll through the latest fashions, a wedding (or funeral) planned. It was a place where women, shopper and shopgirl alike, could stake out a newfound independence. Whether in New York or Chicago or on Main Street, USA, men owned the buildings, but inside, women ruled.

In this hothouse atmosphere, three women rose to the top. In the 1930s, Hortense Odlum of Bonwit Teller came to her husband's department store as a housewife tasked with attracting more shoppers like herself, and wound up running the company. Dorothy Shaver of Lord and Taylor championed American designers during World War II - before which US fashions were almost exclusively Parisian copies - becoming the first businesswoman to earn a $1 million salary. And in the 1960s Geraldine Stutz of Henri Bendel re-invented the look of the modern department store. With a preternatural sense for trends, she inspired a devoted following of ultra-chic shoppers as well as decades of copycats.

In When Women Ran Fifth Avenue, journalist Julie Satow draws back the curtain on three visionaries who took great risks, forging new paths for the women who followed in their footsteps. This stylish account, rich with personal drama and trade secrets, captures the department store in all its glitz, decadence, and fun, and showcases the women who made that beautifully curated world go round."

It's not just the glamor of a bygone era, it was a whole way of life that changed.

The God Gumiho by Sophie Kim
Published by: Del Rey Books
Publication Date: June 4th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this sly and dazzling contemporary fantasy, the most notorious nine-tailed fox in Korea pairs up with a trickster god-turned-detective to track down a wrathful demon...before it can destroy the mortal world.

Kim Hani has retired from a life of devouring souls. She is, simply put, too full. Once known as the infamous Scarlet Fox, she now spends her days working in a coffee shop and annoying a particularly irritating, if unfairly handsome, trickster god as often as she can.

That god is Seokga the Fallen. Exiled from the heavenly kingdom of Okhwang, he now begrudgingly resides in the mortal realm, working toward his redemption and suffering through his interactions with the particularly infuriating, if sneakily charming, gumiho barista at his favorite café.

But when a powerful demon escapes from the underworld and threatens to end all of humanity, Okhwang's emperor offers Seokga an enticing bargain: Kill this rogue creature, as well as the legendary and elusive Scarlet Fox, and he will be reinstated as a god. Hani, however, has no intention of being caught. Seokga might be a trickster god, but she has a trick of her own that he'll never see coming: teaming up. As Seokga's assistant, Hani will undermine and sabotage his investigation right under his overly pointy nose. Sure, she'll help him kill the demon, but she certainly won't allow him to uncover her secret identity while they're at it.

As the bickering partners track their case down a path of mayhem and violence, the god and the gumiho find themselves inescapably drawn to each other. But will the unlikely couple stand together to prevent the apocalypse, or will they let their secrets tear them - and the world - apart?"

I am here for any gumiho story ever. But a gumibo gumshoe? Oh hell yes!

Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse
Published by: Sands/Saga Press
Publication Date: June 4th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 608 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The interwoven destinies of the people of Meridian will finally be determined in this stunning conclusion to New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Roanhorse's Between Earth and Sky trilogy.

Even the sea cannot stay calm before the storm. -Teek saying

Serapio, avatar of the Crow God Reborn and the newly crowned Carrion King, rules Tova. But his enemies gather both on distant shores and within his own city as the matrons of the clans scheme to destroy him. And deep in the alleys of the Maw, a new prophecy is whispered, this one from the Coyote God. It promises Serapio certain doom if its terrible dictates are not fulfilled.

Meanwhile, Xiala is thrust back amongst her people as war comes first to the island of Teek. With their way of life and their magic under threat, she is their last best hope. But the sea won't talk to her the way it used to, and doubts riddle her mind. She will have to sacrifice the things that matter most to unleash her powers and become the queen they were promised.

And in the far northern wastelands, Naranpa, avatar of the Sun God, seeks a way to save Tova from the visions of fire that engulf her dreams. But another presence has begun stalking her nightmares, and the Jaguar God is on the hunt.

Nominated for the Nebula, Lambda, Locus, and Hugo Awards, winner of the Alex Award from the American Library Association and the Ignyte Award from Fiyah magazine, the Between Earth and Sky trilogy is amongst our most lauded modern fantasy series from The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and USA TODAY bestselling author Rebecca Roanhorse."

Seeing as I finally got around to writing my review for the first book in this trilogy, perhaps it's time to finish reading it?

Tidal Creatures by Seanan McGuire
Published by: Tordotcom
Publication Date: June 4th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 464 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Every night, a Moon shines down on the Impossible City...

New York Times bestselling author Seanan McGuire takes us back to the world of the award-winning Alchemical Journeys series in this action-packed follow-up to Middlegame and Seasonal Fears.

All across the world, people look up at the moon and dream of gods. Gods of knowledge and wisdom, gods of tides and longevity. Over time, some of these moon gods incarnated into the human world alongside the other manifest natural concepts. Their job is to cross the sky above the Impossible City - the heart of all creation - to keep it connected to reality.

And someone is killing them.

There are so many of them that it's easy for a few disappearances to slip through the cracks. But they aren't limitless.

In the name of the moon, the lunar divinities must uncover the roots of the plot and thwart the true goal of those behind these attacks - control of the Impossible City itself."

I know I joke about Seanan McGuire's output, but she seriously is rivaling Stephen King and probably even James Patterson... But this literally is her fifth book of the year and not her only release in June...

Again, Dangerous Visions edited by Harlan Ellison
Published by: Blackstone Publishing
Publication Date: June 4th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A follow-up to the original groundbreaking collection, Again, Dangerous Visions features forty-six short stories from giants of the science fiction genre.

Grand Master of the Science Fiction Writers of America and winner of countless awards - including the Hugo, Nebula, Edgar Allan Poe, and Bram Stoker - Harlan Ellison proved once more that he was both unpredictable and irrepressible in this second collection of innovative science fiction. Again, Dangerous Visions - the middle installment in a planned three anthology series - includes award-winning stories from incomparable writers such as Ursula K. Le Guin, Gene Wolfe, Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut, Piers Anthony, Dean Koontz, and James Tiptree, among many others.

Unprecedented and electrifying, Again, Dangerous Visions cemented Harlan Ellison's legacy as the ultimate sci-fi anthologist."

I mean, how could you not buy this book with those names?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Brooke Lea Foster, Ian Moore, Jacqueline Winspear, James Patterson, Kate Khavari, Katharine Schellman, Michael Crichton, Rebecca Roanhorse, Robert Thorogood, Sarah Perry, Seanan McGuire, Stuart Douglas