Tuesday Tomorrow
Murder by the Book by Clare Harman
Published by: Knopf
Publication Date: March 26th, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"From the acclaimed biographer - the fascinating, little-known story of a Victorian-era murder that rocked literary London, leading Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, and Queen Victoria herself to wonder: Can a novel kill?
In May 1840, Lord William Russell, well known in London's highest social circles, was found with his throat cut. The brutal murder had the whole city talking. The police suspected Russell's valet, Courvoisier, but the evidence was weak. The missing clue, it turned out, lay in the unlikeliest place: what Courvoisier had been reading. In the years just before the murder, new printing methods had made books cheap and abundant, the novel form was on the rise, and suddenly everyone was reading. The best-selling titles were the most sensational true-crime stories. Even Dickens and Thackeray, both at the beginning of their careers, fell under the spell of these tales - Dickens publicly admiring them, Thackeray rejecting them. One such phenomenon was William Harrison Ainsworth's Jack Sheppard, the story of an unrepentant criminal who escaped the gallows time and again. When Lord William's murderer finally confessed his guilt, he would cite this novel in his defense. Murder By the Book combines this thrilling true-crime story with an illuminating account of the rise of the novel form and the battle for its early soul among the most famous writers of the time. It is superbly researched, vividly written, and captivating from first to last."
If you've finished watching the recent season of Victoria and love the time period but thought the show could use some murder, this book is for you!
Murder in Midtown by Liz Freeland
Published by: Kensington
Publication Date: March 26th, 2019
Format: Paperback, 304 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"In 1913, while the women’s suffrage movement gains momentum in the nation’s capital, the thought of a woman joining the New York City police force is downright radical, even if recent transplant Louise Faulk has already solved a murder...
Louise has finally gathered the courage to take the police civil service exam, but when she returns to her secretary job at the midtown publishing house of Van Hooten and McChesney, she’s shocked to find the offices smoldering from a deadly, early morning fire. Huddled on the sidewalk, her coworkers inform her that Guy Van Hooten’s body has been found in the charred ruins. Rumors of foul play are already circulating, and the firm’s surviving partner asks Louise to investigate the matter.
Despite a number of possible suspects, the last person Louise expects to be arrested is Ogden McChesney, an old friend and mentor to her aunt Irene. Louise will have to search high and low, from the tenements in the Lower East Side to the very clouds above the tallest skyscrapers, to get to the bottom of an increasingly complex case..."
A little female gumption and know-how in New York!
The American Agent by Jacqueline Winspear
Published by: Harper
Publication Date: March 26th, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Beloved heroine Maisie Dobbs, “one of the great fictional heroines” (Parade), investigates the mysterious murder of an American war correspondent in London during the Blitz in a page-turning tale of love and war, terror and survival.
When Catherine Saxon, an American correspondent reporting on the war in Europe, is found murdered in her London digs, news of her death is concealed by British authorities. Serving as a linchpin between Scotland Yard and the Secret Service, Robert MacFarlane pays a visit to Maisie Dobbs, seeking her help. He is accompanied by an agent from the US Department of Justice - Mark Scott, the American who helped Maisie escape Hitler’s Munich in 1938. MacFarlane asks Maisie to work with Scott to uncover the truth about Saxon’s death.
As the Germans unleash the full terror of their blitzkrieg upon the British Isles, raining death and destruction from the skies, Maisie must balance the demands of solving this dangerous case with her need to protect Anna, the young evacuee she has grown to love and wants to adopt. Entangled in an investigation linked to the power of wartime propaganda and American political intrigue being played out in Britain, Maisie will face losing her dearest friend - and the possibility that she might be falling in love again."
Since the beginning I've always wondered if Maise Dobbs would make it to WWII, and this book answers my question.
What Would Maisie Do? by Jacqueline Winspear
Published by: Harper Perennial
Publication Date: March 26th, 2019
Format: Paperback, 176 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"A one-of-a-kind illustrated companion to the best-selling Maisie Dobbs series, which invites readers into the beloved heroine’s world - and shares her wisdom and inspiration.
Through fourteen books, the Maisie Dobbs series has had a resounding impact on fans. Readers have shared with author Jacqueline Winspear how Maisie’s stories have resonated with them or helped them through difficult times. Fans have been inspired by the heroine’s resilience and endurance, repurposing her strength in their own lives in a way perhaps best embodied by the phrase “What Would Maisie Do?”
Anchored by thirty of Maisie's most timeless quotes, coupled with Jacqueline Winspear’s inspiration for each nugget of wisdom, these reflections offer readers additional insight into the world of Maisie Dobbs and invite them to reflect on favorite moments and memories. Here are just a few:
On the value of respect: “Liking a person we are required to have dealings with is not of paramount importance. But respect is crucial, on both sides, as is tolerance and a depth of understanding of those influences that sculpt a character.”
On grieving: “Grief is a pilgrimage along a path that allows us to reflect upon the past from points of remembrance held in the soul. At times the way is filled with stones underfoot and we feel pained by our memories, yet on other days the shadows reflect our longing and those happinesses shared.”
On the importance of departure: “Leaving that which you love breaks your heart open. But you will find a jewel inside, and this precious jewel is the opening of your heart to all that is new and all that is different, and it will be the making of you - if you allow it to be.”
The perfect supplement to the Maisie Dobbs series, What Would Maisie Do? also features the iconic jacket art that has graced the series, as well as period photographs and prompts for readers' own observations and inspiration - making this a unique journal that fans will turn to and treasure for years to come."
If you were thinking, one Maisie Dobbs book isn't enough this week? Well I have good news for you!
Killing November by Adriana Mather
Published by: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: March 26th, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Hang a Witch comes a thriller set at a secretive boarding school where students are trained to carry on family legacies that have built - and toppled - empires.
November is trapped.
At the mysterious Academy Absconditi, a school that's completely off the grid, there's no electricity, no internet, and a brutal eye-for-an-eye punishment system. Classes include everything from knife-throwing and poisons to the art of deception. And the other students? All children of the world's most elite strategists, in training to become assassins, spies, and master manipulators. November Adley doesn't know why she's been sent to this place, or the secrets that make up its legacy, but she'll quickly discover that allies are few in a school where competition is everything. When another student is murdered, all eyes turn to November, who must figure out exactly how she fits in before she is found guilty of the crime...or becomes the killer's next victim.
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Adriana Mather comes a captivating thriller that will leave you breathless."
It's like a prose version of Deadly Class!
Murder Lo Mein by Vivien Chien
Published by: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Publication Date: March 26th, 2019
Format: Paperback, 304 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"The third in a tasty series, Murder Lo Mein by Vivien Chien is a delight!
Everyone agrees that the food at Ho-Lee Noodle House is delicious - unless it happens to be deadly.
Lana Lee’s stake in her family’s Chinese restaurant is higher than ever now that she’s been made manager. So when she enters Ho-Lee into Cleveland’s Best Noodle Contest, Lana makes it her business to win - at all costs. But when a local food critic receives a threatening note in a fortune cookie and is later found dead, face-down in a bowl of lo mein, all bets are off...
Now, along with her sweet-and-sour boyfriend Detective Adam Trudeau, Lana decides to take matters into her own hands and dig into the lives of everyone involved in the contest. But when she receives an ill-fated fortune, Lana realizes that in order to save the reputation of her restaurant, she needs to save herself first..."
My friend Johnnie never steers me wrong on books and this series is HIGHLY recommended by him!
Timat's Wrathby James S.A. Corey
Published by: Orbit
Publication Date: March 26th, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 544 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"The eighth book in the NYT bestselling Expanse series, Tiamat's Wrath finds the crew of the Rocinante fighting an underground war against a nearly invulnerable authoritarian empire, with James Holden a prisoner of the enemy. Now a Prime Original series.
Thirteen hundred gates have opened to solar systems around the galaxy. But as humanity builds its interstellar empire in the alien ruins, the mysteries and threats grow deeper.
In the dead systems where gates lead to stranger things than alien planets, Elvi Okoye begins a desperate search to discover the nature of a genocide that happened before the first human beings existed, and to find weapons to fight a war against forces at the edge of the imaginable. But the price of that knowledge may be higher than she can pay.
At the heart of the empire, Teresa Duarte prepares to take on the burden of her father's godlike ambition. The sociopathic scientist Paolo Cortázar and the Mephistophelian prisoner James Holden are only two of the dangers in a palace thick with intrigue, but Teresa has a mind of her own and secrets even her father the emperor doesn't guess.
And throughout the wide human empire, the scattered crew of the Rocinante fights a brave rear-guard action against Duarte's authoritarian regime. Memory of the old order falls away, and a future under Laconia's eternal rule - and with it, a battle that humanity can only lose - eems more and more certain. Because against the terrors that lie between worlds, courage and ambition will not be enough..."
If you're thinking, wait, this is March I was expecting this book in December, well, you're not the only one...
Firefly - Magnificent Nice by James Lovegrove
Published by: Titan Books
Publication Date: March 26th, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"The second original novel tying into the critically acclaimed and much-missed Firefly series from creator Joss Whedon.
An old flame of Jayne Cobb's, Temperance McCloud, sends a message to Serenity, begging him for help. She lives on the arid, far-flung world of Tethys, and bandits are trying to overrun her town to gain control of their water supply: the only thing standing between its people and dustbowl ruin. Jayne tries to persuade the Serenity crew to join the fight, but it is only when he offers Vera, his favourite gun, as collateral that Mal realises he's serious.
When the Serenity crew land at a hardscrabble desert outpost called Coogan's Bluff, they discover two things: an outlaw gang with an almost fanatical devotion to their leader who will stop at nothing to get what they want, and that Temperance is singlehandedly raising a teenage daughter, born less than a year after Temperance and Jayne broke up. A daughter by the name of Jane McCloud..."
Yes, I'm glad that they're creating more in the 'verse, but could they hire a cover artist instead of using bad Photoshop filters on old promotional stills?
The Angel Makers by Tessa Harris
The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware
A Sharp Solitude by Christine Carbo
Probable Claws by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown
Murder in Greenwich Village by Liz Freeland
Then There Was You by Miranda Liasson
