Authors

New Releases – October 10 to 16, 2016

October 10, 2016

Here is the list of new release for October 10 to 16!

Tasha Alexander: A Terrible Beauty (This will be the 11th in the Lady Emily Mystery Series.)

Margaret Atwood: Hag-Seed (This will a retelling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.)

Jenna Bennett (aka Jennie Bentley & Bente Gallagher): Scared Money (This will be the 13th in the Savannah Martin Mystery Series.)

Catherine Bruns: Burned to a Crisp (This will be the 3rd in the Cookies & Chance Mystery Series.)

D.W. Buffa: Hillary (This will be a Stand Alone mystery.)

Kieran Crowley: Shoot (This will be the 2nd in the F.X. Shepherd Mystery Series.)

Barbara Early (aka Beverly Allen): Death of a Toy Soldier (This will be the 1st in the NEW Vintage Toy Shop Mystery Series) (This is a Christmas themed mystery.)

Nancy Grace: Murder in the Courthouse (This will be the 3rd in the Hailey Dean Mystery Series.)

James Patterson: Filthy Rich (This will be a True Crime Stand Alone. – John Connolly & Tim Malloy)

Paula Paul (aka Paula Carter): A Killer Closet (This will be the 1st in the NEW Irene Seligman Mystery Series.)

Alexander McCall Smith: Precious and Grace (This will be the 17th in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.)

Wendy Corsi Staub: Something Buried, Something Blue (This will be the 2nd in the Lily Dale Mystery Series.)

Teresa Trent: Pecan Bayou Mystery Series

October 8, 2016

One of the really nice things about anthologies is reading stories/novellas/novels by a smattering of authors. I recently read Happy Homicides 4: Fall Into Crime, in which I was able to enjoy some of my tried-and-true authors’ fall/autumn Cozies as well as finally read a Pecan Bayou Cozy, because the author, Teresa Trent, is now on my favorite authors list!

Right after I read Falling for Murder in that anthology, I read A Dash of Murder, the first in Teresa Trent‘s Pecan Bayou Mystery Series. This is a Halloween Cozy which reminds me quite a bit of Jill Churchill’s Jane Jeffrys series and Kate Borden’s Peggy Jean Turner Mystery Series. They remind me of the other two series in the ease of Trent’s writing style and the holiday setting. (I found out that Trent is an author who sets a lot of her Cozies during the holidays. Yay!) Recently, it has been a “plus” for me when I don’t have to use my Kindle’s dictionary. (I am happy to say that the vocabulary in this Cozy included words I am familiar with. I know this may sound like an odd statement to a lot of you, but I wonder why some authors feel the need to throw in “impressive” words!)

In this Halloween Cozy, Trent includes a lot of Halloween elements. The plot involves Betsy’s Aunt Maggie doing a local TV station’s Halloween ghost-busting show at the old, abandoned Tuberculosis hospital. Creepy Halloween fare!

Betsy has a seven year old son (Zach)) who she is raising on her own. Her husband left the house one day while Betsy was pregnant with Zach, and he simply never returned. Betsy supports Zack and herself by writing the Helpful Hinter, a column for the Pecan Bayou Gazette. She has been collecting household hints her entire life, so this seemed like an ideal (paying!) occupation. Also, Betsy has written a household hints book and she does efficiency-evaluations.

I’ve already mentioned Betsy’s Aunt Maggie. She is a member of the Pecan Bayou Paranormal Society, of which there are three active members. Unfortunately for Betsy, one of the members is a snowbird who only lives in Pecan Bayou between Thanksgiving and Memorial Day, which means that Betsy fills in for her from time to time, even though she’s not a paranormal enthusiast.

Aunt Maggie’s son, Danny, has Down Syndrome, as does Teresa Trent’s son. I love that Danny is an integral character in the series! Brava, Teresa Trent!

You get a sense of a quaint, Cozy town when you read this mystery. The restaurant owner is Zach’s Scout leader, Dr. Mac is the physician everyone sees, Howard is the other member of the Pecan Bayou Paranormal Society (who happens to have his PhD in paranormal psychology, Stanley is the local NUTV station’s director, and Art is the county coroner who plays poker with Betsy’s dad, who is the sheriff.

Of course, a corpse is found – and plenty of people had reasons to not like this person. I was totally surprised to find out whodunit, and am not quite sure if there were clues that I had missed, or not.

As I said earlier, I have added Teresa Trent to my favorite authors list. This Cozy was a short, fun, quick Halloween read – and it even includes recipes and helpful hints!

If you’re interested in reading more of these brief revisits of some of the more popular Cozy Mystery Series that I’ve written in the past, you can find them at the Most Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my site.

Four New Cozy Mystery Holiday Books Coming November 2016

October 4, 2016

November will have five new Cozy Mystery releases with Holiday themes! That’s plenty for one post so I’m just going to dive right into it!

First will be the only non-Christmas themed mystery coming up, JoAnna Carl‘s Easter themed The Chocolate Bunny Brouhaha, which will be the 16th in the Chocoholic Mystery Series.) As the manager of a chocolate shop, Lee McKinney certainly expects to be busy during the Easter season. What she doesn’t necessarily expect is that she’ll be busy with murder, as the relative of a new hire turns up dead at a nearby vacant store nearby. Lee will need to work fast to keep her employee out of trouble in the Easter season. JoAnna Carl also writes under the name Eve K. Sandstrom, and under this name she writes the Down Home Mystery Series and the Matthews/Svenson Series.

Next up will be the first of our Christmas-themed Cozies, Kate Carlisle‘s Deck the Hallways, the 4th in the Fixer-Upper Mystery Series. Shannon Hammer is volunteering some of her time to renovate an old home into cheap housing for homeless families, and she’s brought in many of her neighbors and family, including her father. When the miserly banker who had been backing the project gets into an argument with Shannon’s father, it seems like a minor unpleasantness – until the banker turns up dead. Now Shannon will need to solve the mystery to keep her father out of the suspect lineup! Kate Carlisle also writes the Bibliophile Mystery Series, starring rare book expert and restorer Brooklyn Wainright.

The second of our Christmas-themed Cozies will be Vicki Delany‘s We Wish You a Murderous Christmas, the 2nd in the Year Round Christmas Mystery Series. The small town of Rudolph, New York, revolves around Christmas, maintaining it’s spirit the full year – which is why it is such unpleasant news when one the son of the owner of the Yuletide Inn plans to turn the building into another boring franchise hotel. When he turns up dead, it will be up to Merry Wilkinson to determine who has done this most un-jolly of crimes! Vicky Delany also writes the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery Series, the Ray Robertson Mystery Series, the Constable Molly Smith Mystery Series, the Klondike Mystery Series, and (as Eva Gates) the Lighthouse Library Mystery Series.

The last of our Christmas-themed Cozies will be Anne Perry‘s A Christmas Message, the 14th in the Christmas Mystery Series. In the newest entry in this long-running Christmas themed mystery series which features cast members from her other regular series, Victor and Vespasia Narraway of the Charlotte & Thomas Pitt Mystery Series will be celebrating the Christmas of 1900 in an unusual but interesting way – touring Jerusalem. When a fellow guest at their Jaffa hotel is killed for a scrap of parchment, Victor and Vespasia will risk their lives – and the rest of their holiday season – trying to learn the truth behind the crime and the parchment. Anne Perry also writes the Charlotte & Thomas Pitt Mystery Series, the William Monk Series, and the Matthew Reavley Series.

Finally, it isn’t a holiday themed Cozy but it is by a site author – Jennifer Chiaverini will be releasing Christmas Bells, a Stand Alone non-mystery. I’m not going to discuss this one in detail because it isn’t a mystery >>> but fans of Chiaverini’s work might still be interested in picking it up!

If you want to see more Christmas or Easter themed Cozies, be sure to check out the pages devoted to them on my site:

New Releases – October 3 to 9, 2016

October 3, 2016

Here is the list of new release for October 3 to 9!

Kathy Aarons: Behind Chocolate Bars (This will be the 3rd in the Chocolate Covered Mystery Series.) (This is a Halloween themed mystery.)

Victoria Abbott (aka Mary Jane Maffini & Victoria Maffini): The Hammett Hex (This will be the 5th in the Book Collector Mystery Series.)

Heather Blake (aka Heather Webber): The Witch and the Dead (This will be the 7th in the Wishcraft Mystery Series.)

Leslie Budewitz: Killing Thyme (This will be the 3rd in the Seattle Spice Shop Mystery Series.)

Maia Chance: Teetotaled (This will be the 2nd in the Discreet Retrieval Agency Mystery Series.)

Laura Childs & Terrie Farley Moran: Crepe Factor (This will be the 14th in the Scrapbooking Mystery Series.) (This is a Winter Holiday mystery.)

Sheila Connolly (aka Sarah Atwell): Seeds of Deception (This will be the 10th in the Orchard Mystery Series.)

Kathleen Ernst: A Memory of Muskets (This will be the 7th in the Chloe Ellefson Mystery Series.)

Ann Granger: The Dead Woman of Deptford (This will be the 6th in the Lizzie Martin Mystery Series.)

Charlaine Harris: All the Little Liars (This will be the 9th in the Aurora Teagarden Mystery Series.)

Carolyn Hart: Ghost Times Two (This will be the 7th in the Bailey Ruth Mystery Series.)

Linda O. Johnston: Unlucky Charms (This will be the 3rd in the Superstition Mystery Series.)

Sofie Kelly (aka Sofie Ryan): Paws and Effect (This will be the 8th in the Magical Cats Mystery Series.)

Joyce and Jim Lavene (aka J.J. Cook & Ellie Grant): Putting on the Witch (This will be the 3rd in the Retired Witches Mystery Series.)

Susan Elia MacNeal: The Queen’s Accomplice (This will be the 6th in the Maggie Hope Mystery Series.)

James Patterson & Richard DiLallo: French Kiss (This will be a Stand Alone “BookShot” – Amazon describes these as “Novels you can devour in a few hours”)

Joyce Tremel: Tangled Up in a Brew (This will be the 2nd in the Brewing Trouble Mystery Series.)

Diane Vallere: Masking for Trouble (This will be the 2nd in the Costume Shop Mystery Series.) (This is a Halloween themed mystery.)

Lis Wiehl: The Candidate (This will be the 2nd in the Newsmakers Mystery Series.)

« Previous Page