Starred Review Lists
Lists of books receiving at least one starred review (indicating a noteworthy book) from one of these major review sources: Booklist, Kirkus, Library Journal, or Publishers Weekly. The review source assigns the star.
Overbooked is a resource for ravenous and omnivorous readers
Crime FictionStars 2008: July - December
July
- Collusion
Author: Abbott, Jeff
Publisher: Penguin $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780525950288 Date: 2008
LJ
Collision is the story of two men living very different lives -one, a successful corporate consultant who is mourning the murder of his new bride; the other, a former CIA agent known only as Pilgrim, a whose current assignment for a fringe espionage agency is so treacherous he doesn't trust even his own boss. When they are thrown together in a violent, unexpected event, the two men realize that theyave been framed in an elaborate setup. Unsure who to trust and who may just be trying to draw them into the open, the unlikely partners have no choice but to work together. But with everything at stake, Ben has no idea that Pilgrim is harboring some shocking secrets of his ownasecrets that will soon force Ben to confront just how blurred the line has become between best friends and bitter enemies. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 4.24.08
- Lemur
Author: Black, Benjamin
Publisher: Picador $ 13 ISBN: 9780312428082 Date: 2008
PW
An Irish journalist in New York finds himself in the center of a murder case that may lead back to his billionaire father-in-law, in the first stand-alone thriller from the Booker Prize-wining author of The Sea and Christine Falls.
Updated 5.29.08
- The Deceived
Author: Battles, Brett
Publisher: Doubleday $ 24 ISBN: 9780385341578 Date: 2008
LJ
Jonathan Quinn returns in this new suspense novel that takes readers on a thrilling, pulse-pounding journey from the author who draws comparisons to Robert Ludlum and Raymond Chandler.
Updated 6.18.08
- Hit and Run: Keller
Author: Block, Lawrence
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780060840907 Date: 2008
LJ
Fingered for a murder he didn't commit, a hit man goes on the run to save his life in this stunning new work from the "New York Times"-bestselling master of mystery.
Updated 4.24.08
- Singularity
Author: Casey, Kathryn
Publisher: Minotuar $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780312379506 Date: 2008
Booklist PW
Profiler Sarah Armstrong knows what it's like to be in a sticky situation. As a single mother and one of the few female Rangers in Texas history, she has had to work twice as hard to rank among the best cops in the Lone Star State. But when megawealthy businessman Edward Lucas III is found murdered along with his mistress, their bodies posed in grotesque ways, Sara quickly senses that this will be the deadliest case of her career. While others focus the investigation on Lucas's estranged wife, Sarah disagrees and hunts a suspect only she believes in. Yet nothing in her career could have prepared her for the horror of a young man who believes he has been sent from heaven to massacre innocent people. When Sarah picks up on the killer's elusive trail, following his scent all over Texas, the psychopath makes her his next target. And as Sarah closes in, the madman sets his sights on all she holds dear. Singularity features a feisty, funny, and tough heroine and a truly creepy killer, as it races along to a chilling and unexpected climax. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 7.14.08
- The Palace
Author: Carter, Stephen H.
Publisher: Random $ 26.95 ISBN: 9780307266583 Date: 2008
Booklist PW Kirkus
"USA Today" hailed Carter's last novel as the perfect summer read. Now the bestselling author of New England White is back with a gripping political thriller set in the era of Watergate and Vietnam.
Updated 5.29.08
- The Paths of the AIr
Author: Clare, Alys
Publisher: Severn $ 28.95 ISBN: 9780727866363 Date: 2008
Kirkus
Updated 6.18.08
- The Legal Limit
Author: Clark, Martin
Publisher: Knopf $ 25.95 ISBN: 9780307268358 Date: 2008
Kirkus Booklist
Clark's most remarkable novel yet is the gripping, complex story of a murder cover-up that wreaks widespread havoc even as it redefines the concept of justice--a relentlessly entertaining saga that delves deeply into matters at once ambiguous and essential.
Updated 4.28.08
- The Drifter's Wheel: Fever Devilin
Author: Depoy, Phillip
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780312362034 Date: 2008
Kirkus LJ
Fever Devilin, a folklorist by trade, has returned to his hometown in the Georgia Appalachians seeking peace of mind. But oddness follows Fever wherever he goes, and he finds himself attempting to unravel a most perplexing case before death comes to his door.
Updated 7.16.08
- Findings
Author: Evans, Mary Anna
Publisher: Poisoned Pen $ 24.95 ISBN: 9781590584835 Date: 2008
LJ
Faye Longchamp is overjoyed to be paid to do archaeological work she would have done anyway, excavating a site that was once her family's. That joy ends abruptly when intruders kill a dear friend, and steal Faye's field notes. How is her fieldwork connected to her friend's death?
Updated 4.24.08
- The Trophy Exchange: Lucinda Pierce
Author: Fanning, Diane
Publisher: Severn 27.95 $ ISBN: 9780727866356 Date: 2008
Kirkus
A fast-paced thriller introducing an unforgettable heroine - Homicide Investigator Lucinda Pierce is physically and emotionally scarred by her job. She is angry and bitter, but her life is her work. Lucinda gets sent to investigate the brutal killing of Dr Kathleen Spencer. There seem to be links with other dead women: could it be the work of a serial killer? And will Lucinda be able to solve it or has she become too emotionally involved this time?
Updated 5.29.08
- Black Seconds
Author: Fossum, Karin
Publisher: Harcourt $ 24 ISBN: 9780151015276 Date: 2008
Booklist
When a young girl disappears, suspicion immediately falls on a local character who lives alone and hasn't spoken since childhood. As the media frenzy surrounding the case begins, Inspector Konrad Sejer steps in. But he's puzzled--this is the strangest case he's seen in years.
Updated 4.24.08
- The Likeness
Author: French, Tana
Publisher: Penguin $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780670018864 Date: 2008
Booklist PW LJ
The eagerly anticipated follow-up to the New York Times bestselling psychological thriller In the Woods. Six months after the events of In the Woods, Detective Cassie Maddox is still trying to recover. Another gripping psychological thriller featuring the headstrong protagonist weave come to love, from an author who has proven that she can deliver. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 7.15.08
- Separate from the World: An Ohio Amish Mystery
Author: Gaus, P.L.
Publisher: Ohio Univ $ 24.95/12.95 ISBN: 978082141847/8154 Date: 2008
PW Kirkus
Updated 7.14.08
- Siren of the Waters
Author: Genelin, Michael
Publisher: Soho $ 24 ISBN: 9781569474846 Date: 2008
LJ
"A terrific novel by a man who knows crime, knows Europe, and knows how to write. Siren of the Waters is a genuine pleasure."--Thomas Perry, author of Silence
Jana Matinova entered the Czechoslovak police force as a young woman, married an actor, and became a mother. The regime destroyed her husband, their love for one another, and her daughter's respect for her. But she has never stopped being a seeker of justice. Now, as a commander in the Slovak police force, she liaises with colleagues across Europe as they track the mastermind of an international criminal operation involved in, among other crimes, human trafficking. Her investigation takes her from Ukraine to Strasbourg, from Vienna to Nice, in a hunt for a ruthless killer and the beautiful young Russian woman he is determined either to capture or destroy. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 6.2.08 - A Patent Lie
Author: Goldstein, Paul
Publisher: Doubleday $ I24.95 SBN: 9780385517188 Date: 2008
PW
Michael Seeley (Errors and Omissions) is asked by his estranged brother, a doctor in California, to take on a suit for patent infringement on an AIDS vaccine, Seeley soon finds out the financial stakes are so staggering that murder can scarcely be ruled out as a hardball tactic.
Updated 7.14.08
- Rock & Roll Never Forgets
Author: Grabien, Deborah
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780312379995 Date: 2008
LJ
The last thing the members of Hall of Fame rock & roll band Blacklight need to hear is that ruthless tabloid biographer Perry Dillon is planning a tell-all history of their group. The issue hits hardest for English ex-pat guitarist JP Kinkaid; with his history of heroin addiction and deportation, his estranged wife, and his long-term relationship with a girl he met when she was a teenager, JP has the most to lose. Dealing with his multiple sclerosis doesn't make things any easier.
When he sits down with Dillon, JP's main concern is to preserve both his own privacy and that of Bree Godwin, his fiercely protective longtime girlfriend. But it's obvious from the first question that Dillon is digging deep. And he's not planning to stop until he hits rock bottom. Dillon's looking for trouble, the kind of trouble that garners publicity and sells books. What he finds is the kind of trouble someone will go to any length to cover up, and that includes murder.
Opening night at Madison Square Garden encores with a corpse in JP's dressing room, leaving Blacklight in the middle of a media frenzy---and Bree as homicide lieutenant Patrick Ormand's prime suspect. Rock & Roll Never Forgets, the first JP Kinkaid mystery, offers an all-access pass to how musicians work, live, and love. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 6.2.08
- The Fourth Watcher
Author: Hallinan, Timothy
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780061257254 Date: 2008
PW
Travel writer Poke Rafferty is ready to let go of his "Looking for Trouble" series of travel books and the dangerous lifestyle that goes with it, and settle down in Bangkok with his fiancee, Rose, and his newly adopted daughter, Miaow. But trouble isn't ready to let go of Poke. Enter the one person Poke least wants to see in the entire world--a person whose emotional hold on Poke is absolute. With him come a box of rubies, a wad of fraudulent identity papers, and--in pursuit of those things--one of the most dangerous gangsters in China.
Add to that Rose's innocent involvement in a North Korean counterfeiting operation and an off-the-tracks agent of the American Secret Service who's dying to put Poke behind bars, and Poke and his family find themselves in a complicated and potentially deadly situation. Getting them all out alive will take every skill Poke has.
Once again, Hallinan has created a complex, emotionally satisfying thriller with edge-of-your-seat suspense and a cast of characters so real you'll feel you know them. Sharp as a razor and full of heart-pounding surprises, The Fourth Watcher firmly establishes Hallinan as a brilliant new voice in the world of suspense. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 5.12.08 - The Silver Bear
Author: Haas, Derek
Publisher: Norton $ 24 ISBN: 9781933648446 Date: 2008
Kirkus
The Silver Bear offers an intense psychological portrait of a hitman--the anti-Jason Bourne--as he stalks his prey from Boston to LA.
Updated 7.14.08
- The Resurrection of the Body
Author: Hamand, Maggie
Publisher: Dufour $ 19.95 ISBN: 9781904559306 Date: 2008
PW
While conducting the Good Friday service. Vicar Richard Page is horrified when a man staggers in, bleeding from wounds inflicted during a vicious knife attack. There is no identification on him; he later dies, and no one comes forward to claim the body. Even more bizarrely, his corpse disappears from the morgue, leaving the police baffled and suspicious. The vicar is drawn into a bruising quest to uncover this man's identity and explain the unexplainable. His obsession will bring him into conflict with the police, his superiors, his congregation, and even his wife. The Resurrection of the Body is a thought provoking work exploring love, religion, and madness within an eerie and unsettling mystery.
Updated 10.1.08
- Easy Innocence
Author: Hellman, Libby Fischer
Publisher: Big Earth $ 24.95/14.95 ISBN: 9781932557664/7671 Date: 2008
LJ
When pretty, smart Sara Long is found bludgeoned to death, it's easy to blame the man with the bat. But Georgia Davis, former cop and newly-minted PI, is hired to look into the incident at the behest of the accused's sister, and what she finds hints at a much different, much darker answer. It seems the privileged, preppy schoolgirls on Chicago's North Shore have learned just how much their innocence is worth to hot-under-the-collar businessmen. But while these girls can pay for Prada pricetags, they don't realize that their new business venture may end up costing them more than they can afford.
Updated 7.14.08
- Handbags and Homicide: Haley Randolph
Author: Howell, Dorothy
Publisher: Kensington $ 22 ISBN: 9780758223746 Date: 2008
PW
Fashionistas take note: Dorothy Howell's delightful Handbags and Homicide dangles shopping to die for and a murder in store in a breezy debut mystery as sure to please as a Notorious handbag--Carolyn Hart.
Updated 5.12.08
- The DIrty Secrets
Author: Gardiner, Meg
Publisher: Penguin $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780525950660 Date: 2008
LJ
The writer Stephen King trumpets as the next suspense superstar presents this new series that features heroine Jo Beckett. Investigating a series of suicides, Jo finds they are all part of the Dirty Secrets Club, a group of A-listers with nothing but money and plenty to hide.
Updated 4.24.08
- Volk's Shadow
Author: Ghelfi, Brent
Publisher: Holt $ 25 ISBN: 9780805082555 Date: 2008
LJ
An international cabal drives Volk back to blood-soaked Chechnya, where he confronts an old nemesis and reunites with his lost love, in this gripping sequel to the acclaimed series debut.
Updated 6.18.08
- Another Man's Mocassins
Author: Johnson, Craig
Publisher: Viking $ 23.95 ISBN: 9780670018611 Date: 2008
PW
Walt Longmire unravels a mystery that connects two murders across forty years When the body of a young Vietnamese woman is found alongside the interstate in Absaroka County, Wyoming, Sherriff Walt Longmire is determined to discover the identity of the victim and is forced to confront the horrible similarities of this murder to that of his first homicide investigation as a marine in Vietnam.
To complicate matters, Virgil White Buffalo, a homeless Crow Indian, is found living in a nearby culvert and in possession of the young womanas purse. There are only two problems with what appears to be an open-and-shut case. One, the sheriff doesnat think Virgil White Buffaloaa Vietnam vet with a troubling pastais a murderer. And two, the photo that is found in the womanas purse looks hauntingly familiar to Walt.
In the fourth book in Craig Johnsonas awardwinning Walt Longmire series, the tough yet tender sheriff solves two murders tied in blood but separated by nearly forty years. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 4.24.08
- The Shadow of Reichenbach Falls
Author: King, John R.
Publisher: Forge$ 25.95 ISBN: 9780765318015 Date: 2008
Booklist
One of the most infamous stories in the Sherlock Holmes canon is The Final Problem as it relates the facts of the death/murder of the master detective at Reichenbach Falls. King's work explores what really happened that infamous day and why Holmes disappeared in its aftermath.
Updated 6.18.08
- Stalking Susan
Author: Kramer, Julie
Publisher: Doubleday $ 22.95 ISBN: 9780385524766 Date: 2008
PW
Television reporter Riley Spartz is recovering from a heart-breaking, headline-making catastrophe of her own when a longtime police source drops two homicide files in her lap. Riley suspects a possible serial killer and stages a bold on-air stunt to draw him out.
Updated 5.23.08
- Still Waters
Author: McCrery, Nigel
Publisher: Random $ 23.95 ISBN: 9780307377036 Date: 2008
Kirkus LJ
Razor-sharp and mesmerizingly eerie--and with one of the most clever, ruthless, and sympathetic villains to appear in ages--Still Waters is a stunning start to an exciting new series.
Updated 5.23.08
- Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Author: Mcfetridge, John
Publisher: Harcourt $ 25 ISBN: 9780151014422 Date: 2008
Kirkus
Sharon MacDonald has a problem. It's not being under house arrest. It's not the Iranian guy who just fell from the twenty-fifth floor of her apartment building. It's not even the police surveillance that's preventing her from getting to her marijuana grow rooms. Sharon's problem is a stranger named Ray: He's too good looking, and his business proposal sounds too good to be true.
Detective Gord Bergeron has problems, too. There's his new, hard-to-read partner, Detective Armstrong; a missing ten-year-old girl; an unidentified torso dumped in an alley; and what looks like corruption deep within the police force.
In a city where the drug, immigration, and sex industries are all inextricably intertwined, it's only a matter of time until Sharon's and Gord's paths cross and all hell breaks loose in this pitch-perfect second installment of John McFetridge's rollicking noir series. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 4.28.08
- What Was Lost
Author: O'flynn, Catherine
Publisher: Holt $ 14 ISBN: 9780805088335 Date: 2008
Kirkus
Long-listed for the Booker Prize, the Orange Prize, and "The Guardian" First Book Award, What Was Lost is a tender and sharply observant debut novel about a missing young girl.
Updated 5.23.08
- Killer View
Author: Pearson, Ridley
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780399155055 Date: 2008
Booklist
Sun Valley sheriff Walt Fleming returns in a stunning new thriller from the #1 "New York Times"-bestselling author of Killer Weekend. A terrific villain, an appealing protagonist, and breakneck pacing. . . . Ridley Pearson writes thrillers, the kind that try to yank you to the edge of your seat and keep you there.--"Boston Sunday Globe."
Updated 5.23.08
- Fidelity
Author: Perry, Thomas
Publisher: Harcourt $ 25 ISBN: 9780151012923 Date: 2008
Booklist LJ
When Phil Kramer is shot dead in the middle of the night, his wife is left with an emptied bank account and a lot of questions. Jerry Hobart has some questions of his own. Now that he's been ordered to take out Kramer's widow, he figures there's a bigger secret at work--and a bigger payoff.
Updated 4.24.08
- Rules of Deception
Author: Reich, Christopher
Publisher: Bantam $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780805082555 Date: 2008
LJ
An international cabal drives Volk back to blood-soaked Chechnya, where he confronts an old nemesis and reunites with his lost love, in this gripping sequel to the acclaimed series debut.
Updated 6.18.08
- Illegal Action
Author: Rimington, Stella
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780307268853 Date: 2008
PW
The new installment in Rimington's series of frighteningly authentic ("Chicago Tribune") espionage thrillers features the fiercely intelligent, ambitious MI5 officer Liz Carlyle.
Updated 5.12.08
- The Last Oracle
Author: Rollins, James
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 26.95 ISBN: 9780061230943 Date: 2008
LJ
Sigma Force must battle a group of rogue scientists who've unleashed a diabolical project that could mean the extinction of mankind, in this superb new thriller from the "New York Times"-bestselling author of Black Order and The Judas Strain.
Suggested Reading: Adrenaline
Updated 5.23.08
- Don't Tell a Soul
Author: Rosenfelt, David
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780312373955 Date: 2008
LJ Booklist PW
The popular author of six Andy Carpenter mysteries, including the recent hit Play Dead, delivers his first stand alone with this gripping suspense novel.
Updated 5.23.08
- Fractured
Author: Slaughter, Karin
Publisher: Doubleday $ 25 ISBN: 9780385341950 Date: 2008
PW
Slaughter, one of the best crime novelists in America ("Washington Post"), brings back the characters from her "New York Times"-bestselling work Triptych for a shocking showdown of heart-stopping suspense.
Updated 5.12.08
August
- Lie Down with the Devil
Author: Barnes, Linda
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780312332891 Date: 2008
PW
Boston P.I. Carlotta Carlyle turns to the mystery in her own life--Sam Gianelli--in this latest installment in one of the best private-eye series ever (Harlan Coben).
Updated 6.18.08
- Folly Du Jour
Author: Cleverly, Barbara
Publisher: Consortium $ 24.95 ISBN: 9781569475133 Date: 2008
Booklist
"A historical mystery that has just about everything ("Denver Post"), this seventh book in the Joe Sandilands murder mystery series is set at the Folies-Bergre, Paris, in December 1926.
Updated 5.2.08
- Black and White and Dead All Over
Author: Darnton, John
Publisher: Random $ 23.95 ISBN: 9780307267528 Date: 2008
Kirkus
A keenly intelligent, delightfully mordant novel, this mystery blends fact and fiction with the same deft hand that was at work in Darnton's bestselling Neanderthal.
Updated 6.18.08
- Skeleton Lake
Author: Doogan, Mike
Publisher: Putnam $ 25.95 ISBN: 9780399154928 Date: 2008
Kirkus
Nik Kane struggles with a killer from his past in this latest entry in the Shamus Award-nominated series.
Updated 6.18.08
- The September Society
Author: Finch, Charles
Publisher: Minotaur $ 25.95 ISBN: 9780312359782 Date: 2008
LJ
Charles Lenox is back in a new mystery by the acclaimed author of A Beautiful Blue Death.
Updated 8.19.08
- No Human Enemy
Author: Gardner, John
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780312376703 Date: 2008
Kirkus
Exactly a week after the D-Day landings came the vengeance weapons. When one of these new weapons lands on a Camberwell convent, the Reserve Squad is called in. Together with her boss and secret lover Tommy Livermore, Suzie Mountford is drawn into a complex investigation.
Updated 6.18.08
- Separate from the World: An Ohio Amish Mystery
Author: Gaus, P.L.
Publisher: Ohio Univ $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780821418147 Date: 2008
PW Kirkus
Separate from the World is a story of a rift between two Amish factions, one that favors the use of medicine and that participates in a college study of genetic traits particular to the Amish community, and the other that rejects any outside influence.
Updated 8.19.08
- The Garden of Evil
Author: Hewson, David
Publisher: Delacorte $ 24 ISBN: 9780385339575 Date: 2008
PW Booklist
The internationally acclaimed author of smart, literate thrillers ("Publishers Weekly") delivers a heart-stopping crime novel steeped in richly atmospheric modern-day suspense and Rome's treacherous history.
Updated 6.19.08
- People Who Walk In Darkness
Author: Kaminsky, Stuart M.
Publisher: Forge $ 23.95 ISBN: 9780765318862 Date: 2008
LJ
Inspector Rostnikov is an honest policeman in a very dishonest post-Soviet Union Russia. He travels to Siberia to investigate a murder at a diamond mine, where he discovers an old secret--and an even bigger problem, in this fast-paced novel from an Edgar Award-winning author.
Updated 8.19.08
- Leather Maiden
Author: Lansdale, Joe R.
Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 9780375414527 Date: 2008
Booklist
A masterly new thriller from the Edgar Award-winning writer who has "a folklorist's eye for telling detail and a front-porch raconteur's sense of pace" ("The New York Times Book Review").
Updated 6.18.08
- The Black Path
Author: Larson, Asa
Publisher: Delta $ 12 ISBN: 9780385341011 Date: 2008
Booklist
From the internationally bestselling author of The Blood Spilt and Sun Storm--winner of Sweden's Best Crime Novel Award--comes a searing tale of darkness beyond imagination.
Updated 7.14.08
- The Turnaround
Author: Pelecanos, George
Publisher: Little Brown $ 24.99 ISBN: 9780316156479 Date: 2008
Booklist Kirkus LJ
One afternoon in 1972, three teenagers drove into an unfamiliar neighborhood and six lives were altered forever. Thirty-five years later, one survivor of that day reaches out to another. But another survivor is now out of prison, looking for reparation in any form he can find it.
Updated 8.1.08
- Stranger Room
Author: Ramsey, Frederick
Publisher: Poisoned Pen $ 24.95 ISBN: 9781590585351 Date: 2008
LJ
The elderly Jonathan Lydell III is proud of his family history. He is related to the Virginia Lees (both Light Horse Harry and Robert E. Lee) and to the Custis family (and thus to George Washington). But these connections donat seem to matter to the current generation. In fact, they seem utterly disinterested in family, history, or position. But for Lydell, family history is the only real thing leftathat and his antebellum house.
Lydell is committed to restoring the home to its antebellum configuration, complete with a stranger roomaan attached room with its own entrance, separately locked and kept for use by unknown travelers. Found in many family homes in the 1800s, the room was intended to protect the family from unsavory guests.
Nearly 150 years ago, an inexplicable murder took place in the locked stranger room of the Lydell house. The murderer was never caught. As far as Lydell is concerned, this brutal history just adds to the rich character of the house. But when a new, identical murder is committed in the same room, not even sheriff Ike Schwartz and FBI agent Karl Hedrick can explain it. Why would history repeat itself? What could explain these identical murders? Could the Lydell family history hold the key? The fourth novel in the Ike Schwartz series. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 8.19.08
- Forsaken Soul
Author: Royal, Priscillia
Publisher: Poisoned Pen $ 24.95 ISBN: 9781590585214 Date: 2008
PW
The summer of 1273 is peaceful for most of England--except in the village of Tyndal where Martin the cooper has been poisoned at the local inn. Martin had many enemies, and the killer could be anyone, in this fifth novel in the Medeival Mystery series.
Updated 6.2.08
- Good People
Author: Sakey, Marcus
Publisher: Penguin $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780525950844 Date: 2008
PW
The author of the critically acclaimed The Blade Itself returns with this dazzling thriller in which a couple in search of the American Dream is drawn into a world of criminals, double-crossing, and unspeakable revenge.
Updated 6.18.08
- Moscow Rules
Author: Silva, Daniel
Publisher: Putnam $ 26.95 ISBN: 9780399155017 Date: 2008
LJ
Filled with rich prose and breathtaking turns of plot, Moscow Rules is at once superior entertainment and a searing cautionary tale about the new threats rising to the East--and Silva's finest novel yet.
Updated 8.1.08
- Sweeping Up Glass
Author: Wall, Carolyn D.
Publisher: Poisoned Pen $ 24.95 ISBN: 9781590585122 Date: 2008
PW
This may be the coldest winter on record in Kentucky, but that doesn't keep the elusive Hunt Club from tracking silver-faced wolves on Olivia's strip of mountain. It falls to her and Will'm to figure out why as the hunters turn their sights on them, too, in this searing and surprising debut novel.
Updated 6.18.08
- The Shadow Walker
Author: Walters, Michael
Publisher: Berkley $ 14 ISBN: 9780425222331 Date: 2008
PW LJ
A serial killer is loose on the streets of Ulan Bataar, Mongolia, and Nergui, the former head of the Serious Crimes squad, is no closer to catching the killer and will accept any help he can get. Drew McLeish, a senior British CID officer, is sent out to lend his expertise to the investigation.
Updated 8.18.08
September
- Ashes, Ashes
Author: Atkins, Charles
Publisher: Severn $ 27.95 ISBN: 9780727866400 Date: 2008
Booklist
From page one, the chase is on and many will die. Unnecessarily. - Forensic psychiatrist, Ms Barrett Conyors knew that if Richard Glash werent manacled to his chair, he would kill her . . . [He] had likely imagined every detail of her murder and then obsessively sketched the scene hundreds of times. At forty-two Richard, whod spent all but four and a half years of his life locked away . . . had few interests, other than drawing and killing.
Updated 8.19.08
- Bean There, Done That
Author: Balzo, Sandra
Publisher: Severn $ 27.95 ISBN: 9780727866530 Date: 2008
Kirkus
Heres a tip: if your ex-husbands mistress-cum-missus asks for your help in proving that he cheated on her while he was married to you, just say no. And, whatever you do, dont invite her in . . . Coffeehouse owner Maggy Thorsen does just that when Rachel Slattery Thorsen comes knocking on her door. When the new Mrs Thorsen disappears that same evening, Maggy quickly finds herself embroiled in a murder investigation involving Rachels hotelier family Milwaukees answer to the Hiltons.
Updated 8.19.08
- The Black Tower
Author: Bayard, Louis
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780061173509 Date: 2008
PW Kirkus Booklist
The acclaimed author of Mr. Timothy and The Pale Blue Eye has constructed another spellbinding historical mystery about a real-life convict who transformed himself into the world's first modern detective.
Updated 8.19.08
- Salvation Boulevard
Author: Beinhart, Larry
Publisher: Perseus $ 24.95 ISBN: 9781568584119 Date: 2008
PW
The murder victim: an atheist. The accused: Muslim. The lawyer: Jewish. The detective: Born Again Christian. A thriller about death, faith, and God--from one of America's best mystery writers.
Updated 10.1.08
- In the Dark
Author: Billingham, Mark
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 9780061432736 Date: 2008
PW
The bestselling British crime author delivers a long-awaited stand-alone novel of murder, vengeance, and justice set on the dark streets of London's most dangerous neighborhoods.
Updated 10.1.08
- Takeover
Author: Black, Lisa
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780061544453 Date: 2008
Booklist LJ
In the tradition of Kathy Reichs and Jeffrey Deaver, Black's promising new novel introduces a sharp and gutsy forensic investigator in a stunning thriller.
Updated 7.18.08
- Manhattan Noir 2: The Classics
Author: Block, Lawrence (edt)
Publisher: Akashic $15.95 ISBN: 9781933354576 Date: 2008
PW
Classic reprints from: Edith Wharton, Stephen Crane, O. Henry, Irwin Shaw, Jerome Weidman, Damon Runyon, Evan Hunter, Jerrold Mundis, Edgar Allan Poe, Horace Gregory, Geoffrey Bartholomew, Cornell Woolrich, Barry N. Malzberg, Clark Howard, Jerome Charyn, Donald E. Westlake, Joyce Carol Oates, Lawrence Block, Susan Isaacs, and others. Lawrence Block has won most of the major mystery awards and has been called the quintessential New York writer. His series characters-Matthew Scudder, Bernie Rhodenbarr, Evan Tanner, Chip Harrison, and Keller-all live in Manhattan; like their creator, they would not really be happy anywhere else.- Publisher Marketing
Updated 8.1.08
- Oscar Wilde and a Game Called Murder
Author: Brandreth, Gyles
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 14 ISBN: 9781416534846 Date: 2008
PW
Brandreth pens the second witty installment in an astonishingly authentic historical murder mystery series featuring detective Oscar Wilde and his partner-in-crime, Arthur Conan Doyle.
Updated 8.19.08
- The Max
Author: Bruen, Ken and Jason Starr
Publisher: Hard Case $ 6.99 ISBN: 9780843959666 Date: 2008
Booklist
In prisons half a world apart, Max Fisher improbably rises to the top of the pecking order at Attica, while on the Greek island of Lesbos, Angela Pretrakos tries to escape a murder charge. Now both are headed for eye-opening encounters with the law.
Updated 5.23.08
- Angel's Tip
Author: Burke, Alafair
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 23.95 ISBN: 9780061561023 Date: 2008
Kirkus PW
In her breakout book, the acclaimed thriller writer delves into the underworld of the Manhattan nightclub scene to deliver another work of first rate, suspenseful entertainment ("Washington Post Book World").
Updated 8.19.08
- The Big O
Author: Burke, Declan
Publisher: Harcourt $ 24 ISBN: 9780151014088 Date: 2008
Kirkus
Karen's easy life as a receptionist and armed robber is about to take a turn for the worse. Rossi, her ex, is getting out of prison any day now. He'll be looking for his motorcycle, his gun, the sixty grand he says is his, and revenge. But he won't be expecting Ray, the new guy Karen's just met, to be in his way. No stranger to the underworld himself, Ray wants out of the kidnapping game now that some dangerous new bosses are moving in. Meanwhile Frank, a disgraced plastic surgeon, hires Ray to kidnap his ex-wife for the insurance money. But the ex-wife also happens to be Karen's best friend. Can Karen and Ray trust each other enough to work together on one last job? Or will love, as always, ruin everything? From a writer hailed as "Elmore Leonard with a hard Irish edge" ("Irish Mail on Sunday"), Declan Burke's The Big O is crime fiction at its darkest and funniest. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 8.19.08
- Sweetheart
Author: Cain, Chelsea
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780312368470 Date: 2008
PW Booklist
With Heartsick Cain took the crime world by storm, introducing two of the most compelling characters in decades: serial killer Gretchen Lowell and her obsessed pursuer Portland Detective Archie Sheridan. Lowell and Sheridan's stories continue in this terrifying new sequel.
Updated 10.1.08
- Christmas is Murder
Author: Challinor, C.S.
Publisher: Llewellyn $ 13.95 ISBN: 9780738713595 Date: 2008
Booklist
Christmas in the English countryside - what could be more charming? Not even a blizzard can keep Rex Graves away from Swanmere Manor, a historic hotel in East Sussex. But instead of Christmas cheer, the red-haired Scottish barrister finds a dead guest. Was it a stroke that killed old Mr. Lawry? Or an almond tart laced with poison? When more guests die, all hopes for a jolly holiday are dashed. Worst of all, the remote mansion is buried under beastly snow. No one can leave. Confined with a killer, no one can enjoy their tea without suspicion and scrutiny. Rex takes it upon himself to solve the mystery, but the most intriguing evidence offers few clues. Could the killer be the sherry-swilling handyman? The gay antiques dealer with a biting wit? The quarreling newlyweds? Surely, it's not Helen D'arcy, the lovely lass Rex seems to be falling for . . . - Publisher Marketing
Updated 10.1.08
- Mr. White's Confession (reprint)
Author: Clark, Robert
Publisher: Griffin $ 14 ISBN: 9780312428129 Date: 2008
Booklist
St. Paul, Minnesota, 1939. A grisly discovery is made. On a hillside, the dead body of a beautiful dime-a-dance girl is found, and an investigation opens. Assigned to the case is Police Lieutenant Wesley Horner, a man troubled and alone after his wife's recent death, a man with his own demons. He soon narrows his sights on Herbert White, an eccentric recluse and hobby photographer with a fondness for snapping suggestive photographs of the dime-a-dance girls. As Horner discovers, White is also a man with no memory, who must record his life in detailed journal entries and scrapbooks. For every interrogation Horner has, Herbert White has few answers, pushing the murder investigation into unknown territory and illuminating the complex relationship between truth and fiction, past and present, faith and memory. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 10.1.08
- Blood Memory
Author: Coel, Margaret
Publisher: Berkely $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780425223451 Date: 2008
Kirkus PW
Catherine McLeod's recent investigation of the Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes' lawsuit has made her the target for assassination. As she unravels the truth, she discovers some startling facts about her own heritage, making the would-be killer all the more desperate to find her.
Updated 8.1.08
- The Army of the Republic
Author: Cohen, Stuart Archer
Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780312383770 Date: 2008
LJ
A war of ideals tears a family and a troubled America apart, in this urgent and provocative political thriller.
Updated 10.1.08
- The Angel of Knowlton
Author: Flora, Kate
Publisher: Five Star $ 25.95 ISBN: 9781594147203 Date: 2008
LJ
Updated 10.1.08
- The Clinch Knot
Author: Galligan, John
Publisher: Bleak House $ 24.95 ISBN: 9781606480038 Date: 2008
PW
Updated 8.1.08
- The Butcher of Smithfield
Author: Gregory, Susanna
Publisher: Sphere $ 24.95 ISBN: 9781847440624 Date: 2008
PW
Thomas Chaloner, just returned from a clandestine excursion to Spain and Portugal on behalf of the Queen, finds London dank and grey under leaden skies. Although he has only been away for a short while, he finds many things changed, including the government slapping a tax on printed newspapers. Handwritten news reports escape the duty, and the rivalry between the producers of the two conduits of news is the talk of the coffeehouses, with the battle to be first with any sort of intelligence escalating into violent rivalry. And it seems that a number of citizens who have eaten cucumbers have come to untimely deaths. It is such a death which Chaloner is despatched to investigate; that of a lawyer with links to "the Butcher of Smithfield," a shady trader surrounded by a fearsome gang of thugs who terrorize the streets well beyond the confines of Smithfield market. Chaloner doesn't believe that either this death or the others are caused by a simple vegetable, but to prove his theory he has to untangle the devious means of how news is gathered and he has to put his personal safety aside as he tries to penetrate the rumor mill surrounding the Butcher of Smithfield and discover his real identity. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 8.1.08
- Ex-Kop
Author: Hammond, Warren
Publisher: Forge $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780765312747 Date: 2008
PW
In this hardboiled science fiction thriller, Juno, having been booted off the police force, is barely getting by as a low-level bagman and photographer for the scandal rags. But it gets worse: his wife is in critical condition at the hospital and Juno doesn't have the money to pay her bills. Desperate for cash, Juno agrees to help his ex-partner, Maggie Orzo, solve a difficult case. A young girl sits on death row, accused of brutally murdering her own parents. She's confessed to the murders, but Maggie isn't buying it, so she sends Juno out to get some answers.
Working with Maggie, Juno comes into contact with her new partner, Ian. As dirty as they come, Ian is eager to rise in the police force no matter what the cost. Somehow Ian, a vicious serial killer, and the girl on death row are all connected. It is up to Juno and Maggie to find out how before more people die. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 10.1.08
- Cold in Hand
Author: Harvey, John
Publisher: Harcourt $ 24 ISBN: 9780151014620 Date: 2008
Kirkus Booklist PW
It's Valentine's Day, and a dispute between rival gangs turns bloody. One teenage girl is left dead, another injured, and a police officer is caught in the crossfire. Detective Inspector Charlie Resnick, nearing retirement, is hauled back to the front line to help deal with the fallout.
Updated 10.1.08
- The Fifth Floor
Author: Harvey, Michael
Publisher: Random $ 23.95 ISBN: 9780307266873 Date: 2008
PW Kirkus Booklist
Harvey's sizzling, intricately woven follow-up to The Chicago Way opens with murder in contemporary Chicago and winds its way back to Mrs. O'Leary's cow and the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
Updated 6.18.08
- Ritual
Author: Hayder, Mo
Publisher: PGW $ 24 ISBN: 9780871139924 Date: 2008
Kirkus PW Booklist
The author of The Devil of Nanking delivers a taut, chilling tale of clandestine occult practices, New Age medicine, and the drug underground, set in a hypermodern urban landscape challenged by colliding immigrant cultures.
Updated 8.19.08
- Frozen Sun: Nathan Active
Author: Jones, Stan
Publisher: Bowhead $ 13.95 ISBN: 9780979980374 Date: 2008
Kirkus
Blizzards, tundra, Eskimos, bush pilots, and bingo-loving grandmas enliven this literate ethnic mystery starring Alaska State Trooper Nathan Active, who has been assigned to the remote Arctic town of Chukchi. Though born an Inupiat Eskimo, Active was raised in Anchorage by white parents and has little knowledge of his native culture. During the long months he has spent in Chukchi, he has rallied against the icy weather and struggled to understand his two cultural identities, but he realizes how deeply he has been settling into the rhythms of community life when Grace Palmer, a local beauty queen, goes missing. The state trooper mounts a search that ultimately leads him halfway across Alaska--and gives him plenty of time to discover he is in love with Grace. Closing in on the answers, however, he discovers evidence that points to an agonizing situation: she is either dead, or she is a cold-blooded killer.- Publisher Marketing
Updated 8.19.08
- Red Knife: Cork O'Connor
Author: Krueger, William Kent
Publisher: Atria $ 24 ISBN: 9781416556749 Date: 2008
PW
The next book in Krueger's award-winning Corcoran O'Connor series finds the charismatic private investigator caught in the middle of a racial gang war that's turning picturesque Tamarack County into a bloody battlefield.
Updated 8.19.08
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Author: Larsson, Steig
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780307269751 Date: 2008
PW LJ
In this European publishing sensation, a crusading journalist joins forces with a 24-year-old pierced and tattooed genius hacker to investigate a missing woman from one of the wealthiest families in Sweden. They discover a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity in the Vangers, astonishing corruption in the highest echelons of Swedish industrialismand an unexpected connection between themselves.
Updated 8.19.08
- The Whiskey Rebels
Author: Liss, David
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 9781400064205 Date: 2008
Booklist
From the bestselling, award-winning author of A Conspiracy of Paper comes his most powerful historical mystery yet. Set in post-Revolutionary War America, The Whiskey Rebels is a superb rendering of a vivid and perilous age.
Updated 10.1.08
- Fresh Kills
Author: Loehfelm, Bill
Publisher: Penguin $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780399155314 Date: 2008
PW
Updated 8.19.08
- Fickle: A Novel of Suspense
Author: Manus, Peter
Publisher: Virgin $ 15.95 ISBN: 9780753513996 Date: 2008
Booklist
This suspense-filled noir is told completely in the form of the protagonist's weblog. L.G. Fickel, a young literary editor by day, spends her nights hosting a playful blog devoted to pulp fiction. One night, however, she posts that she's just witnessed a train suicide, an event that changes her own life to a noirish tale of psychological tension that borders on paranoia as the police discover connections between Fickel and the dead man that she can't explain. Fickel's blog fans are her support system, an unruly Greek chorus of commenters, addicted to Fickel's troubles as every night she pours out the increasingly strange story of her life as a murder suspect. This novel comes about as close as any to breaking down the "third wall" between reader and novel as the reader begins to realize that he's just another voyeur, lurking on Fickel's blog and relishing her growing desperation. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 10.1.08
- Death's Half Acre
Author: Maron, Margaret
Publisher: Grand Central $ 24.99 ISBN: 9780446196109 Date: 2008
PW
Unchecked urbanization has begun to eclipse the North Carolina countryside. In the shadows, corrupt county commissioners make profitable deals with new developers. A murder will pull Judge Deborah Knott and Dwight Bryant into the middle of this bitter dispute and force them to confront some dark realities.
Updated 6.18.08
- Borderlands
Author: Mcgilloway, Brian
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 9780312384067 Date: 2008
Booklist
A dazzling and highly lyrical debut crime novel, Borderlands marks the beginning of a compelling new series featuring Inspector Benedict Devlin.
Updated 10.1.08
- The Book of Lies
Author: Meltzer, Brad
Publisher: Grand Central $ 25.99 ISBN: 9780446577885 Date: 2008
LJ
The author of the #1 "New York Times" bestseller The Book of Fate returns with two burning questions. What does Cain, history's greatest villain, have to do with Superman, the world's greatest hero? And what do two murders, committed thousands of years apart, have in common?
Updated 8.19.08
- Badlands
Author: Montanari, Richard
Publisher: Ballantine $ 26 ISBN: 9780345492425 Date: 2008
PW
International bestselling author Montanari's latest adrenaline-fueled thriller transports readers to the gritty streets of Philadelphia's Badlands, where a diabolical fiend plays a cryptic, murderous game.
Updated 8.19.08
- A Cure for Night
Author: Peacock, Justin
Publisher: Bantam $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780385525800 Date: 2008
Booklist
In this authentic journey through the real Brooklyn, Peacock's debut paints a portrait of the law as a form of combat where the best story wins--but who's telling the truth and who's lying are matters of interpretation and matters of life and death.
Updated 10.1.08
- The Laughter of Dead Kings: Vicki Bliss
Author: Peters, Elizabeth
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 9780061246241 Date: 2008
LJ
The author of the bestselling Amelia Peabody novels returns with the long-awaited final installment in her beloved contemporary series featuring art historian Vicky Bliss--back for the first time in more than a decade.
Updated 8.19.08
- Exit Music
Author: Rankin, Ian
Publisher: Little Brown $ 24.99 ISBN: 9780316057585 Date: 2008
Kirkus Booklist LJ
As he is simply trying to tie up some loose ends before his retirement, a new case lands on Detective Inspector John Rebus's desk: a dissident Russian poet has been murdered in what looks like a mugging gone wrong. Only a few days shy of the end to his long, controversial career, will Rebus even make it that far?
Updated 8.19.08
- Leper
Author: Thayer, Steve
Publisher: North Star $ 24.95 ISBN:9780878392667 Date: 2008
Booklist
Updated 10.1.08
- Stamped Out
Author: Thayer, Terri
Publisher: Berkely $ 6.99 ISBN: 9780425223291 Date: 2008
PW
Murder makes an impression in this crafty, cozy debut that introduces professional rubber stamper April Buchert, who returns to her Pennsylvania hometown--and to a series of unexplained deaths. Includes instructions for a stamping project.
Updated 10.1.08
- Crime
Author: Welsh, Irvine
Publisher: Norton $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780393068191 Date: 2008
PW Booklist
Welsh's sizzling new novel is a thrilling journey into the bright glamour of the Sunshine State and a seething underworld of utter darkness, in this shocking story about the corruption and abuse of the human soul and the possibilities of redemption.
Updated 10.1.08
October
- The Tale of Briar Bank
Author: Albert, Susan Wittig
Publisher: Penguin $ 23.95 ISBN: 9780425223611 Date: 2008
Booklist
Beloved children's author Beatrix Potter, wearing the hat of amateur sleuth, returns in this delightful, perfectly charming cozy ("Booklist").
Updated 10.1.08
- When Will There Be Good News?
Author: Atkinson, Kate
Publisher: Little Brown $ 24.99 ISBN: 9780316154857 Date: 2008
PW Booklist LJ
Atkinson's Jackson Brodie, hero of the national bestsellers Case Histories and One Good Turn, returns in an intense new literary thriller where three lives come together in unexpected and deeply thrilling ways.
Updated 8.19.08
- Salvation Boulevard
Author: Beinhart, Larry
Publisher: Perseus $ 24.95 ISBN: 9781568584119 Date: 2008
PW
The murder victim: an atheist. The accused: Muslim. The lawyer: Jewish. The detective: Born Again Christian. A thriller about death, faith, and God--from one of America's best mystery writers.
Updated 9.6.08
- The Wettest County in the World: A Novel Based on a True Story
Author: Bondurant, Matt
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 25 ISBN: 9781416561392 Date: 2008
PW
Bondurant weaves a compelling tale of violence, desperation, and greed, as three brothers run moonshine in Virginia during prohibition, in this story that is based on a true story about his grandfather and two uncles.
Updated 6.18.08
- Sins of the Children
Author: Brownley, James
Publisher: Severn $ 27.95 ISBN: 9780727866646 Date: 2008
PW
An Alison Glasby Mystery - Facing legal action for publishing an unsubstantiated article about police corruption, Alison Glasbys career in journalism seems to be over. But when she receives a tip-off that the senior police officer in charge of policing the police one Henry Dunne may have dark secrets of his own, Alisons luck appears to be changing. Until, that is, her source is found with his skull caved in and the promised evidence vanishes . . .
Updated 8.19.08
- The Army of the Republic
Author: Cohen, Stuart Archer
Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780312383770 Date: 2008
LJ
A war of ideals tears a family and a troubled America apart, in this urgent and provocative political thriller.
Updated 9.6.08
- The Brass Verdict
Author: Connelly, Michael
Publisher: Little Brown $ 26.99 ISBN: 9780316166294 Date: 2008
Booklist PW LJ
Things are finally looking up for defense attorney Mickey Haller. After two years of wrong turns, Haller is back in the courtroom. When Hollywood lawyer Jerry Vincent is murdered, Haller inherits his biggest case yet: the defense of Walter Elliott, a prominent studio executive accused of murdering his wife and her lover. But as Haller prepares for the case that could launch him into the big time, he learns that Vincent's killer may be coming for him next. Enter Harry Bosch. Determined to find Vincent's killer, he is not opposed to using Haller as bait. But as danger mounts and the stakes rise, these two loners realize their only choice is to work together.
Updated 10.1.08
- Glass of Time
Author: Cox, Michael
Publisher: Norton $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780393067736 Date: 2008
PW LJ
Like its beguiling and intelligent ("New York Times Book Review") predecessor, this work is a page-turning period mystery about identity, the nature of secrets, and what happens when past obsessions impose themselves on an unwilling present.
Updated 10.1.08
- Expresso Shot
Author: Coyle, Cleo
Publisher: Penguin $ 21.95 ISBN: 9780425221778 Date: 2008
LJ
Clare Cosi's been hired to create a gourmet coffee and dessert bar for a swanky wedding. But when fatal accidents begin befalling people close to the bride-to-be, Clare becomes suspicious. What she unveils, amid melted chocolate and steaming mochaccinos, may just get her burned.
Updated 10.1.08
- The Archangel Project
Author: Graham, C.S.
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 7.99 ISBN: 9780061351204 Date: 2008
PW
In a city struggling to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, a disgraced CIA agent and a young Iraq War veteran with an unusual talent join forces to catch a killer and thwart a plot that could plunge the world into an apocalyptic war.
Updated 8.19.08
- Blackbird, Farewell
Author: Greer, Robert
Publisher: Random $ 25.95 ISBN: 9781583942505 Date: 2008
LJ
Featuring the vivid characters and streetwise dialogue that have made the CJ Floyd series a critical and commercial success, Blackbird, Farewell is a punch-packing whodunit that exposes the dark side of the pro-athlete good life.
Updated 10.1.08
- Ex-KOP
Author: Hammond, Warren
Publisher: Forge $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780765312747 Date: 2008
PW
Heartbreak and redemption for the flawed hero of the noir-SF thriller KOP.
Updated 8.19.08
- The Draining Lake
Author: Indridason, Arnaldur
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780312358730 Date: 2008
LJ
In this new extraordinary mystery from Gold Dagger Award-winner Indridason, the water level of an Icelandic lake falls suddenly, revealing a skeleton weighed down by a heavy device bearing Russian inscriptions. The investigation leads back to Iceland, international espionage, and murder.
Updated 10.1.08
- Exposed
Author: Kava, Alex
Publisher: Mira $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780778325574 Date: 2008
PW
The killer had chosen his first victims because of their ordinariness. His weapon of choice is an Ebola-like virus, which spreads through casual contact. Profiler Maggie O'Dell and her partner make the connection to the virus and join the killer's game on a scavenger hunt across the country.
Updated 10.1.08
- Flesh House
Author: Macbride, Stuart
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780312382636 Date: 2008
PW Booklist
When body parts show up in a container at Aberdeen's harbor, they kick off Scotland's largest manhunt in 20 years--since the last time they had pursued Kenneth Wiseman. A brutal killer, Wiseman had been acquitted on a technicality. But now police are certain he's at work again.
Updated 8.19.08
- The Messengers of Death
Author: Magnan, Pierre
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780312387563 Date: 2008
PW
Last year Death in the Truffle Wood introduced renowned French crime writer Pierre Magnan to rave American reviews. Now the celebrated Commissaire Laviolette is back in a second delectable mystery set in Provence.
Emile Pencenat is in a cemetery, designing his own ornate tomb. In a disused postbox by the gate he discovers an envelope addressed to a Mlle Veronique Champourcieux. He is puzzled, but being a former postman, he dutifully purchases a stamp and posts the letter. When the body of this same Mlle Veronique is later discovered---pinned to her own piano by a bayonet attached to an ancient rite---Commissaire Laviolette is coaxed out of retirement to solve one of the most bizarre crimes imaginable.
Tautly plotted and brimming with suspense, The Messengers of Death is a story of dark vengeance and avarice that will thrill and intrigue Magnan's ever-growing audience in the English-speaking world.- Publisher Marketing
Updated 8.19.08
- Pyramid: And Four Other Kurt Wallander Mysteries
Author: Mankell, Henning
Publisher: Norton $ 26.95 ISBN: 9781565849945 Date: 2008
Kirkus Booklist PW
Filling in the missing pieces of the internationally bestselling Kurt Wallander mystery series, The Pyramid tells the story of Wallander's beginnings through five gripping short mysteries.
Updated 10.1.08
- The Right Mistake: The Further Philosophical Investigations of Socrates Fortlow
Author: Mosley, Walter
Publisher: Basic $ 23 ISBN: 9780465005253 Date: 2008
PW
Socrates Fortlow is a 60-year-old ex-convict, now freed after serving 27 years in prison. Disheartened by the chaos of the streets, he calls together local people of all races to conduct meetings of a Thinkers' Club, where all can discuss the unanswerable questions in life.
Updated 10.1.08
- The Fire
Author: Neville, Katherine
Publisher: Ballantine $ 26 ISBN: 9780345500670 Date: 2008
PW LJ
A quest for a mystical chess service that once belonged to Charlemagne, spanning two centuries and three continents, continues in this long-anticipated sequel to The Eight.
Updated 10.1.08
- The Lover's Knot
Author: O'Donohue, Clare
Publisher: Penguin $ 13 ISBN: 9780452289796 Date: 2008
LJ
Nell Fitzgerald's joy is short-lived when her fiance announces he's calling off the wedding. Heartbroken, Nell flees to her grandmother's home in quaint Archers Rest. When the body of a local handyman is found murdered in the quilt shop, Nell finds herself drawn into the case.
Updated 8.19.08
- The Best American Mystery Stories 2008
Author: Pelecanos, George (edt)
Publisher: Houghton $ 28 ISBN: 9780618812660 Date: 2008
PW
Updated 10.1.08
- Fear Death by Water
Author: Roby, Kinley
Publisher: Five Star $ 25.95 ISBN: 9781594146442 Date: 2008
LJ
Updated 8.19.08
- Third Strike
Author: Sharp, Zoe
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780312358976 Date: 2008
LJ
In this heart-pounding follow-up to the electrifying Second Shot, Sharp's heroine Charlie Fox must unravel a most deadly concoction of blackmail, treachery, and murder, in order to save her own father.
Updated 10.1.08
- The Fourth Victim
Author: Spinosa, Tony
Publisher: Bleak House $ 24.95 ISBN: 9781606480090 Date: 2008
Booklist
Updated 10.1.08
- Flight of the Hornbill
Author: Stone, Eric
Publisher: Bleak House $ 24.95 ISBN: 9781606480212 Date: 2008
LJ
Updated 10.1.08
- The Tenth Case
Author: Teller, Joseph
Publisher: Mira $ 7.99 ISBN: 9780778326052 Date: 2008
PW
Having married her elderly billionaire husband when she was 18, sexy young Samara Moss is now accused of stabbing him to death.
Updated 8.19.08
- Small Crimes
Author: Zeltserman, Dave
Publisher: Serpents Tail $ 14 ISBN: 9781852429713 Date: 2008
PW
Crooked cop Joe Denton gets out of prison early after disfiguring the local district attorney, which doesn't help his popularity. Nobody wants Joe to hang around-not his ex-wife, his parents, or his former colleagues. Meanwhile, local mafia don Manny Vassey is dying of cancer and keen to cut a deal with God. He's thinking of singing to the DA if this will set him up for a better after life. And he knows stuff that will send Joe down again for a very long time-along with half the local law enforcement.
Set in the pressure cooker of a very small town and following the promise of Dave Zeltersman's earlier novels ("Fast Lane" and "Bad Thoughts"), "Small Crimes" is an explosive noir that brings the claustrophobic hell of Jim Thompson and James M. Cain right up to date. - Publisher Marketing Updated 10.1.08
November
- Divine Justice
Author: Baldacci, David
Publisher: Grand Central $ 26.99 ISBN: 9780446195508 Date: 2008
Booklist
Oliver Stone and the Camel Club return in Baldacci's most astonishing thriller yet when the assassinations Stone carries out prompt the highest levels of the government to unleash a massive manhunt.
Updated 10.1.08
- The Charlemagne Pursuit
Author: Berry, Steve
Publisher: Ballantine $ 26.95 ISBN: 9780345485793 Date: 2008
LJ PW
Updated 10.1.08
- The Face of a Killer
Author: Burcell, Robin
Publisher: Poisoned Pen $ 24.95 ISBN: 9781590583746 Date: 2008
LJ
FBI forensic artist Sydney Fitzpatrick questions the guilt of the man about to be executed for her fatheras murder twenty years earlier. The first stirrings of doubt occur when one of her forensic sketches on an unrelated case brings forth memories about her fatheras homicide that shead hoped to forget. A mysterious envelope arrives in the mail on the anniversary of her fatheras death. She opens the packet and discovers a blackmail letter written by her father, an old photo of his army buddies, and a deposit slip from a bank long closed. Refusing to believe that her father was involved in any blackmail scheme, she searches for evidence to clear his name. Her investigation leads to a trail of corruption by high-ranking US political officials, and a meticulous and deadly cover-up by the military and the CIA. The more Special Agent Fitzpatrick digs into her fatheras past, the more she finds it riddled with dark secrets and truths, including the fact that her fatheras seemingly ordinary military career was anything but stellar or even routine. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 10.1.08
- The Bodies Left Behind
Author: Deaver, Jeffrey
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 26.95 ISBN: 9781416595618 Date: 2008
Booklist
An original cast of characters and ticking-bomb suspense highlight this thriller that is both a virtual cat-and-mouse chase in real-time and a harrowing look at the consequences of heartless evil.
Updated 10.1.08
- The Good Thief's Guide to Paris
Author: Ewan, Chris
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 9780312376451 Date: 2008
LJ Booklist
Charlie Howard--mystery writer and professional thief--is flush with the success of his Paris book-reading when he agrees to show a novice how to break into an apartment. The next day, Charlie's hired to steal an ordinary-looking oil painting--from the same address.
Updated 10.1.08
- The Victoria Vanishes: A Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery
Author: Fowler, Christopher
Publisher: Bantam $ 24 ISBN: 9780553805024 Date: 2008
PW Booklist
Fans of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next mysteries will delight in the latest adventures of London's Peculiar Crimes Unit. The case files of the PCU never disappoint when it comes to uniquely atmospheric and rewarding mysteries.
Updated 10.1.08
- Ghost at Work
Author: Hart, Carolyn
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780060874360 Date: 2008
Booklist PW
The beloved and award-winning author pens an exciting new mystery series featuring a meddling, crime-solving ghost.
Updated 10.1.08
- The Fourth Time is Murder
Author: Havill, Steven F.
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780312380632 Date: 2008
Kirkus
Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman gets word that a police officer has been hurt. When she arrives at the scene, it is clear by the scattered objects and marks on the ground that someone had been there after the accident. Who was this stranger and why was he there?
Updated 10.1.08
- The Private Patient
Author: James, P.D.
Publisher: Random $ 25.95 ISBN: 9780307270771 Date: 2008
PW
Commander Adam Dalgliesh and his team are called in to investigate a murder at a private nursing home for rich patients being treated by the famous plastic surgeon George Chandler-Powell, in this welcome addition to the Dalgliesh canon.
Updated 10.1.08
- Second Violin
Author: Lawton, John
Publisher: PGW $ 24 ISBN: 9780871139917 Date: 2008
LJ
Lawton adds another spellbinding thriller to his Inspector Troy series with this sixth installment in the series. Moving from the Nazi-infested alleys of pre-war Vienna to the bombed out streets of 1940s London, this uncommon thriller delivers a suspenseful and intelligent spy story and historical narrative.
Updated 10.1.08
- Blackout
Author: Morozzi, Gianluca
Publisher: Bleak House $ 14.95 ISBN: 9781904738329 Date: 2008
Booklist
Bologna in August: unbearable heat, an empty city. Claudia is a young student in a hurry to return home from her work as a waitress and get out of the skimpy uniform she hates. Tomas is a young man on his way to elope to Amsterdam with his girlfriend, Francesca. Aldo is a husband and father with an uncanny resemblance to Elvis Presley, anxious to get to an apartment filled with guilty secrets. All three have an urgent need to be somewhere else. Instead, they are trapped in an elevator in a deserted building on a holiday weekend. They are like three wasps in an upturned glass . . . and one of the trio is a serial killer.
This dark, twist-packed psychological thriller in the style of "Phonebooth "has been adapted as a US film to be released in the fall of 2008, starring Amber Tamblyn and directed by cult Mexican auteur Rigoberto Castaeda. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 10.1.08
- Burn Out
Author: Muller, Marcia
Publisher: Grand Central $ 24.99 ISBN: 9780446581073 Date: 2008
Booklist LJ
Traumatized by a recent investigation, Sharon McCone flees to her ranch in California's high desert country to contemplate her future. Determined not to investigate anything during her stay, McCone is drawn into the plight of a young woman, where danger lies closer than she expects.
Updated 8.19.08
- An Innocent Client
Author: Pratt, Scott
Publisher: Onyx $ 7.99 ISBN: 9780451412652 Date: 2008
PW
A preacher is stabbed to death in a Tennessee motel, and the suspect is a strip-club waitress. Defense attorney Joe Dillard is sure the vulnerable Angel is not capable of killing anyone. What Dillard doesn't count on are the others drawn into the storm of this stunning crime. A preacher is stabbed to death in a Tennessee motel, and the suspect is a strip-club waitress. Defense attorney Joe Dillard is sure the vulnerable Angel is not capable of killing anyone. What Dillard doesn't count on are the others drawn into the storm of this stunning crime.
Updated 10.1.08 - The Memorist
Author: Rose, M.J.
Publisher: Mira $24.95 ISBN: 9780778325840 Date: 2008
LJ PW
As a child, Meers Logan had been haunted by memories of another time and place. Now the hand of the past has reached out again, in the form of a drawing of an 18th-century gaming box. Determined to unlock the mystery of who she once had been, Meers travels to Vienna to find the box.As a child, Meers Logan had been haunted by memories of another time and place. Now the hand of the past has reached out again, in the form of a drawing of an 18th-century gaming box. Determined to unlock the mystery of who she once had been, Meers travels to Vienna to find the box.
Updated 10.1.08
- The Fire Kimona
Author: Rowland, Laura Joh
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780312379483 Date: 2008
PW
Japan, March 1700. Troops ambush and attack Lady Reiko, the wife of Sano Ichiro, the samurai detective who has risen to power and influence. The troops who have attacked Reiko appear to belong to Sano's enemy, Lord Matsudaira, who denies all responsibility. But if the rivals are not to blame, who is?
Updated 10.1.08
- Dancing With Demons: A Mystery of Ancient Ireland
Author: Tremayne, Peter
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780312375645 Date: 2008
PW
In the winter of 669 C.E., the High King of Ireland is murdered and all evidence points to a particular clan chieftain - it's up to Fidelma to uncover the motive for the murder.
Updated 8.19.08
- Veil of Lies: A Medieval Noir
Author: Westerson, Jeri
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780312379773 Date: 2008
LJ
In the late 14th Century, disgraced former knight Crispin Guest finds himself in the midst of a situation involving a murdered tradesman, a missing religious artifact, a family dispute and a perplexing mystery.
Updated 10.1.08
December
- Fragile Lives: Rina Martin
Author: Adams, Jane
Publisher: Severn $ 27.95 ISBN: 9780727866806 Date: 2008
Booklist
Updated 10.1.08
- The Charlemagne Pursuit
Author: Berry, Steve
Publisher: $ 26.95 ISBN: 9780345485793 Date: 2008
LJ PW
From the "New York Times"-bestselling author of The Venetian Betrayal and The Alexandria Link comes a stunning thriller that takes Cotton Malone on a dangerous international quest set in motion by a mysterious manuscript unearthed from the tomb of Charlemagne.
Updated 11.31.08
- Bamboo and Blood
Author: Church, James
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 9780312372910 Date: 2008
Booklist
In A Corpse in the Koryo, Church introduces one of the most unique detectives--the elusive Inspector O. The author's next book, Hidden Moon, takes O through the minefield of North Korean while he attempts to solve a crime that is meant to remain unsolved. Now, the Inspector returns.
Updated 10.1.08
- The Spanish Game
Author: Cumming, Charles
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780312366391 Date: 2008
PW
The latest thriller from the international bestselling author of A Spy by Nature will delight fans of such British masters of spy fiction as John le Carr, Robert Ludlum, and Len Deighton ("Publishers Weekly," starred review).
Updated 10.1.08
- Without Conscience
Author: Davies, David Stuart
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 9780312382100 Date: 2008
LJ
Forests of the Night introduced the intrepid John Hawke, an exciting new detective operating in London during the Blitz. Now Johnny Hawke is back in this atmospheric, thrilling sequel.
Set in 1942, Without Conscience, finds Rachel Howells in London for the first time, trapped in a web of violence. Her companion, army deserter Harryboy Jenkins, will stop at nothing--not even murder--to enjoy his illicit freedom. Meanwhile, private detective Johnny Hawke is involved in the bizarre murder of one of his clients. At the same time he is trying to find Peter, the runaway boy he had befriended in an earlier case.
Inexorably the paths of Harryboy and Johnny grow closer together until they collide with frightening consequences.
This is a stunning follow-up to the critically acclaimed Forests of the Night and is sure to win Davies a whole new set of fans. -Publisher Marketing
Updated 10.1.08
- Brimstone Kiss
Author: Douglas, Carole Nelson
Publisher: Juno $ 7.99 ISBN: 9780809573042 Date: 2008
PW
Delilah and her partner - tall, dark, handsome, and Hispanic ex-FBI guy Ric Montoya - are busy solving a "Romeo and Juliet" double-murder and she's got plenty more to deal with: vampires, werewolves, and tigers, oh my!
Updated 10.31.08
- The Inner Circle
Author: Jungstedt, Mari
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780312363789 Date: 2008
PW LJ
"Unseen has everything we have come to expect from a great Swedish crime novel---graceful prose, deft characterization, and a setting that is somehow both familiar andstrange, like a kind of dream-world. But what makes this first novel unique is its author's ability to write with a bird's-eye view about horrible events while at the same time maintaining a poet's sense of intimacy about what her characters think and feel. Possessing such gifts as these---scope and heart, a desire to get to the truth---makes Mari Jungstedt the new writer to watch."---Daniel Judson, Shamus Award winner and author of The Darkest Place.
Updated 10.31.08
- Jury Rigged
Author: Moore, Laurie
Publisher: Five Star $ 25.95 ISBN: 9781594147104 Date: 2008
PW
Updated 10.31.08
- Fatal Quest: Woodend's First Case
Author: Spencer, Sally
Publisher: Severn $ 27.95 ISBN: 9780727866820 Date: 2008
Kirkus
A Charlie Woodend Mystery his first . . - DS Charlie Woodend has a murder to solve. Trouble is, nobody seems to want him to solve it not Eddie, a Liverpudlian thug sent to threaten him; not DCI Bentley; not Deputy Commissioner Naylor, whose word is law in Scotland Yard; not even the dead girl's mother herself. But Woodend cares. He will find the murderer, he promises himself, even if that means putting his career and perhaps even his own life on the line.
Updated 10.31.08
- Defending Angels
Author: Stanton, Mary
Publisher: Berkley $ 7.99 ISBN: 9780425224984 Date: 2008
PW
The first novel in a new series. With a long list of ethereal clients who need her help, Savannah lawyer Brianna Winston Beaufort is asked by an already-dead businessman for help in finding his murderer and proving his innocence against a charge of greed issued by the Celestial Court.
Updated 10.31.08
- The King of Swords
Author: Stone, Nick
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780060897314 Date: 2008
PW Booklist
When Detective Max Mingus and his partner, Joe Liston, are called to the scene of a death at Miami's Primate Park, it looks like another routine--if slightly bizarre--investigation. That is, until two things turn up: the victim's family, slaughtered, and a partly digested tarot card in the dead man's stomach--the King of Swords.
An increasingly bloody trail leads Max and Joe first to a sinister fortune-teller and her scheming pimp son, then to the infamous Solomon Boukman. Few have ever met the most feared criminal in Miami, but rumors abound of a forked tongue, voodooesque ceremonies, and friends in very high places.
Against a backdrop of black magic and police corruption, Max and Joe must distinguish the good guys from the bad--and track down some answers. What is the significance of the King of Swords? What makes those who have swallowed the card go on a killing spree just before they die? And can Max find out the truth about Solomon Boukman before death's shadow reaches his own front door?
The King of Swords is a feat of black magic, combining a thrilling plot, unforgettable characters, and the uniquely menacing atmosphere that made Nick Stone's Mr. Clarinet the most celebrated crime debut of 2006. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 10.31.08
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