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Historical Mysteries

Mysteries that we feel are particularly noteworthy appear in red.

New and Forthcoming in Historical Mysteries

April/May 2012

Bailey, Elizabeth. The Deathly Portent (Brk, 15.00) Apr. Ottilia investigates when a murder occurs in the village of Witherly and a young woman believed to be a witch with second sight is accused in the second in this Georgian series.

Black, Benjamin. A Death in Summer (STM, 15.00) Apr. Quirke is called in when a newspaper tycoon is found dead from a shotgun blast in a case that leads him to a dark web of deceit and violence in 1950s Dublin.

Blake, Robin. A Dark Anatomy (STM, 24.99) May. In this debut historical mystery set in mid-eighteenth-century England, the Lancashire county coroner is called in when a noblewoman is found murdered and he joins forces with the local physician to help him solve the case in the face of rumor and superstition.

Boyd, William. Waiting for Sunrise (HC, 26.99) Apr. A young man in Vienna in 1913 to consult a Freudian psychotherapist is blackmailed into becoming a British agent in the period before and during WWI.

Brandreth, Gyles. Oscar Wilde and the Vatican Murders (SS, 14.00) May. When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle discovers a finger, a lock of hair, and a complete severed hand among his correspondence, he and his friend Oscar Wilde are drawn to Rome and a secret involving the six men closest to the pope.

Brightwell, Emily. Mrs. Jeffries Defends her Own (Brk, 7.99) May. When someone from her past arrives begging for her help when an office manager is murder, Mrs. Jeffries must stop a miscarriage of justice.

Cantrell, Rebecca. A Game of Lies (STM, 14.99) May. Journalist Hannah Vogel returns to Berlin to cover the 1936 Olympics and meets her former mentor who asks her to smuggle anti-Nazi documents out of Germany before he is brutally murdered.

Cross, Kate. Heart of Brass (NAL, 7.99) May. The first in a new series of what is known as steampunk—a combination of mystery and historical romance, featuring an undercover agent for a mysterious organization whose missing husband reappears with amnesia and orders to kill her.

Davis, Lindsey. Master and God (STM, 25.99) May. A stand-alone historical thriller set during the reign of Domitian, the cruelty of whose reign leads to a conspiracy to overthrow, forcing two lovers,a member of the Praetorian Guard and the court hairdresser, to a difficult decision.

Diener, Michelle. Keeper of the King’s Secrets (SS, 15.00) Apr. In this thriller at the court of Henry VIII, the court painter and her fiancé are asked by the king to recover a prized jewel that was stolen on behalf of Cardinal Wolsey.

Dietrich, William. The Barbary Pirates (HC, 14.99) May. Ethan Gage travels to the Mediterranean to steal a Greek super-weapon from Europe’s most notorious pirates.

_____. The Emerald Storm (HC, 25.99) May. Ethan Gage is in the Caribbean on the trail of a mysterious and magical Spanish treasure and must outwit British agents who want to use the gold to finance a slave revolt in Haiti.

Doherty, P.C. Bloodstone (SH, 28.95) Apr. Brother Athelstan is called in to investigate when a vicious killer targets the member of a group of master bowmen in London in 1380.

_____. The Mysterium (STM, 25.99) Apr. Hugh Corbett must investigate the murder of a disgraced chief justice amidst a series of brutal murders in London in 1304.

Downing, David. Lehrter Station (Soho, 25.00) May. In London in 1945, John Russell is offered the chance to escape from his low-level job spying for the Soviets by agreeing to become a double agent for the Americans an offer given him by a Soviet agent who himself wishes to make a deal with the Americans.

______. Potsdam Station (Soho, 14.00) May. In April 1945 journalist John Russell is frantic to return to Berlin to find his son, now a German soldier on the Eastern Front, and his lover, who is in hiding protecting a Jewish orphan, so he asks the Soviets to allow him to enter as a journalist with the advancing Red Army.

Edlin, Nicholas. The Widow’s Daughter (Png, 15.00) Apr. A surgeon in the U.S. Marines in 1943 stationed in Auckland finds himself caught up in a murder when the violent brother of his fiancée is found dead, and in his quest to clear himself of suspicion he discovers that she may not be the person she seems.

Falco, Ed. The Family Corleone (GC, 27.99) May. A prequel to The Godfather that begins in New York in 1933 where Vito Corleone is faced with the end of Prohibition, which will change the face of organized crime, while at the same time worrying about Sonny, his eldest child, who wants to become part of the family business. Very well reviewed.

French, Paul. Midnight in Peking (Png, 26.00) May. Two detectives—one British and one Chinese—investigate the murder of a young Englishwoman in Peking in 1937 as the city is surrounded by Japanese forces in an historical true-crime story written by a historian and China expert.

George, Margaret. Elizabeth I (Png, 17.00) Apr. An historical page-turner told from the point of view of Elizabeth’s cousin that gives the reader insight into the most alluring woman who ruled over the golden age of British history and culture.

Goodwin, Jason. An Evil Eye (STM, 15.00) Apr. Investigator Yashim must discover why the admiral of the Ottoman fleet has defected to the Egyptians in a case rooted in the sultan’s harem in another mystery set in exotic nineteenth-century Istanbul.

Grahame-Smith, Seth. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (GC, 7.99) Apr. Little did you know about the role of the undead in the Civil War!

Grant, Teresa. Imperial Scandal (Kens, 15.00) Apr. In the latest in this Regency spy series, British agent Malcolm Rannoch and his wife are in Brussels awaiting Napoleon’s attack when a British aristocrat is found murdered.

Haenel, Yannick. The Messenger (Counterpoint, 24.00) Apr. A Polish diplomat escapes from the Gestapo and is charged with the mission of conveying a message to the Allies about Hitler’s plans to exterminate the Jews of Europe, but to his horror and despair, his efforts are fruitless.

Hays, Tony. The Stolen Bride (STM, 25.99) Apr. Malgwyn ap Cuneglas accompanies King Arthur to the west of England, but when they arrive they find the king murdered, and Malgwyn’s investigation turns up some questions about Arthur’s interest in the region in the fourth of this highly-acclaimed series set in early Britain. Signing.

Holbert, Bruce. Lonesome Animals (Counterpoint, 24.00) May. A retired lawman is called out of retirement to hunt for a vicious serial killer who is targeting Native Americans in 1930s Washington State.

Jio, Sarah. The Bungalow (Plume, 15.00) Apr. A young army nurse sent to the Pacific island of Bora Bora falls for a mysterious man, and their tropical idyll is destroyed when they inadvertently witness a gruesome crime.

Joel, Maggie. The Second-Last Woman in England (F&M, 14.95) Apr. A British housewife manages to achieve the dubious distinction of being the second-to-last woman sentenced to be hanged in England in a mesmerizing debut set in 1952.

Kerr, Philip. Prague Fatale (Put, 26.95) Apr. Reinhard Heydrich has ordered Bernie Gunther, now a member of the SS against his will, to Prague in September, 1941, fearing for his life, but the victim is a young adjutant, and Bernie finds himself investigating a locked-room mystery with some of the Reich’s most odious officials as suspects.

King, Laurie R. Pirate King (BDD, 15.00) May. The filming of a movie of The Pirates of Penzance in Lisbon and Morocco plunges Mary Russell into danger when the director hires actual pirates.

Kuhn, Eleanor. A Simple Murder (STM, 24.99) May. A debut mystery set in a Shaker community in Maine in the late eighteenth-century, where a man seeking to be reunited with his son investigates the murder of a young woman and finds dark secrets among the sect’s members.

Larson, Erik. In the Garden of the Beasts (RH, 16.00) May. The story of the American ambassador to Germany in 1933, an academic who comes to realize the horror of Hitler’s Germany, and his difficulties in convincing the politicians in Washington just how bad things were. Excellent.

Loupas, Elizabeth. The Flower Reader (NAL, 15.00) Apr. A young woman at the Scottish court is able to read the future in flowers, an ability that allows her to negotiate a maze of murder and conspiracy when the queen regent dies and Mary, Queen of Scots ascends the throne.

MacNeal, Susan Elia. Mr. Churchill’s Secretary (BDD, 15.00) Apr. A young American woman decides to remain in London after war is declared against German and becomes the secretary to Churchill, but a murder on her doorstep sends her looking for a killer in the first in a new series.

McGarrity, Michael. Hard Country (Dut, 28.95) May. A sprawling family saga following three generations of Kevin Kerney’s forbears beginning with the Civil War veteran who arrives in the Tularosa Basin of New Mexico to establish a ranch. Signing.

McGee, James. Hawkwood (Peg, 25.95) May. The first of a Regency crime series featuring a chief magistrate working with an ex-army sniper working as a Bow Street Runner to discover who attacked a coach and made off with the dispatch pouch carried by an admiralty courier. For fans of Bruce Alexander.

McPherson, Catriona. Dandy Gilver and the Proper Treatment of Bloodstains (STM, 14.99) May. Scottish aristocrat Dandy Gilver agrees to help a woman who fears that her husband is going to kill her and goes undercover as a maid to investigate in this series set after the First World War. Dandy is a great character. Highly recommended.

_____. Dandy Gilver and an Unsuitable Day for Murder (STM, 24.99) May. When a Dunfermline department store heiress goes missing, Dandy must investigate the two rival families whose secrets may be connected to the disappearance.

Meade, Amy Patricia. Don’t Die Under the Apple Tree (Kens, 7.99) May. The first in a new series set in New York during WWII, where a young woman working at the shipyards who joins forces with a handsome policeman when her foreman is murdered right after he turns her down for a promotion.

Mills, Mark. House of the Hunted (RH, 26.00) Apr. A retired English intelligence operative living in the Côte d’Azur in 1935 realizes that his past life has caught up with him when someone tries to murder him while he sleeps.

Moore, Christopher. Sacré Bleu (HC, 26.99) Apr. Set in the art world of the late 19^th century, this confection of intrigue, comedy, passion, and art history has Henri Toulouse-Lautrec and a painter investigating the death of Vincent van Gogh.

O’Melveny, Regina. The Book of Madness and Cures (LB, 25.99) Apr. A sixteenth-century Venetian woman who practices medicine searches throughout Europe for her who disappeared mysteriously.

Pajer, Bernadette. Fatal Induction (PP, 24.95 hc, 14.95 tp) May. An electrical engineering professor in Seattle in 1901 takes time from his work to investigate the disappearance of a gypsy peddler who sold patent medicines and his young daughter.

Perry, Anne. Dorchester Terrace (Ball, 26.00) Apr. Thomas and Charlotte join together to find a mole in the Special Branch after a retired spy, who was a friend of Charlotte’s Aunt Vespacia, dies mysteriously.

_____. Treason at Lisson Grove (Ball, 15.00) Apr. Thomas Pitt travels to France to search for the murderer who may be hiding among a group of anti-government agitators, while Charlotte helps find a political agitator hiding in Ireland.

Poole, Sara. The Borgia Mistress (STM, 14.99) May. A young woman who is the court poisoner for the powerful Borgia family joins forces with her aristocratic lover Cesare Borgia to stop a deadly conspiracy in Renaissance Italy.

Pötzsch, Oliver. The Dark Monk (HMH, 18.00) May. When the priest of a small Bavarian village is poisoned in 1648, the town hangman, his daughter, and a physician find themselves in pursuit of a treasure of the Knights Templar in a historical murder-mystery adventure written by a young Bavarian whose ancestors were executioners.

Rich, Roberta. The Midwife of Venice (SS, 15.00) Apr. A Venetian Jew who works as a midwife is asked to assist at the birth of a high-born Venetian child, but she soon discovers that she and the baby face mortal danger in a debut set in 16^th-century Venice.

Ross, Kate. Whom the Gods Love (F&M, 14.95) Apr. The third in the Regency series finds Julian Kestrel helping the police solve the murder of an aristocratic young man found dead at his own elegant society party.

Runcie, James. Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death (Bloomsbury, 14.00) May. In a delightful debut set in 1953 the vicar of Grantchester, with the help of his detective inspector friend, helps to solve a series of crimes—an unexplained suicide, a jewel theft, a shocking forgery.

Saylor, Steven. The Seven Wonders (STM, 25.99) May. In a prequel to the Roma sub Rosa series set in 92 B.C.E., Gordianus and his tutor are doing the grand tour of the Seven Wonders of the World, but along the way they encounter murder and witchcraft.

Shepherd, Lynn. The Solitary House (BDD, 26.00) May. A debut historical set in Victorian London, featuring a disgraced police officer turned detective who is hired by a powerful attorney to discover who is sending him threatening letters. A very Dickensian mystery that will send you back to reread Bleak House.

Taylor, D.J. Derby Day (Peg, 25.95) Apr. A wonderful romp through Victorian society when an unscrupulous fop buys a race horse with his wife’s money and then decides to throw the race, with results that show the sordid side of London society.

Thompson, Victoria. Murder on Fifth Avenue (Brk, 24.95) May. When a member of his very exclusive private club is murdered, Sarah Brandt’s father is reluctantly compelled to ask his despised new son-in-law, DS Frank Malloy, to investigate discreetly.

_____. Murder on Sisters’ Row (Brk, 7.99) May. Sarah investigates a charity that helps women and their infant children after a wealthy supporter is found dead in the latest in this series set in late nineteenth-century New York.

Trow, M.J. Silent Court (SH, 28.95) May. Elizabethan playwright and spy Christopher Marlowe goes undercover as an actor to guard a protestant ally in the Netherlands, but at a stop at the house of John Dee, a fatal poisoning temporarily distracts him.

Vyleta, Dan. The Quiet Twin (STM, 16.00) Mar. A German doctor in 1939 Vienna agrees to help a professor discover who killed his dog, the latest victim in a string of unsolved murders, but his investigation, with the help of the professor’s niece runs into the dark realities of Nazi rule.

Wilson, Laura. The Innocent Spy (F&M, 14.95) Feb. A police procedural set during WWII in London, featuring Ted Stratton whose investigation into the death of a middle-aged woman is changed after he talks with a society beauty who works with MI5.

Young, Felicity. The Anatomy of Death (Brk, 15.00) May. As England’s first female autopsy surgeon, Dody McCleland is faced with a political nightmare, the murder of a suffragette who died during a heated woman’s rights rally in the first of a new series set in London at the turn of the twentieth-century.

Zimler, Richard. The Warsaw Anagrams (Png, 15.95) May. An elderly psychiatrist, trapped in the Warsaw ghetto in 1940, investigates when his beloved great-nephew is found dead, his body strangely mutilated, in a powerful and heartbreaking historical thriller.

February/March 2012

Bowen, Rhys. Bless the Bride (STM, 7.99) Mar. Molly Murphy helps a runaway bride in early 20^th-century New York.

_____. Hush Now, Don’t You Cry (STM, 24.99) Mar. When an ambitious politician is killed on his estate in Rhode Island, Molly Murphy interrupts her honeymoon to find his killer.

Brody, Frances. Dying in the Wool (STM, 24.99) Feb. A cozy historical set in the English countryside, where a bride-to-be wants Kate Shackleton, who specializes in finding out what happened to missing WWI soldiers, to look into the disappearance of her father before the wedding to see if he ran off with his mistress or was murdered.

Buckley, Fiona. Queen without a Crown (SH, 28.95) Feb. Ursula Blanchard, lady-in-waiting to Elizabeth I is asked by a young man to help clear his father’s name after he committed suicide while under suspicion of killing a suspected womanizer with designs on his wife.

Burton, Milton T. The Devil’s Odds (STM, 25.99) Feb. Texas Ranger Virgil Tucker must battle the New Orleans Mafia trying to muscle in on Galveston’s gambling empire in 1942.

Cameron, Peter. Coral Glynn (FSG, 25.00) Mar. A young nurse who is sent to a manor house in the English countryside after WWII discovers a young woman murdered in the forest nearby and suspicion falls on her.

Chiaverini, Jennifer. The Union Quilters (Png, 15.00) Feb. The quilters of the Elm Creek Valley rise to the call of the Union in 1862 as their husbands rally to President Lincoln’s call to arms.

Clare, Alys. The Way between the Worlds (SH, 28.95) Feb. Apprentice healer Lassair discovers that a nun at the abbey where her sister serves has been murdered in a way that suggests ritual pagan sacrifice.

Dean, Anna. A Woman of Consequence (STM, 24.99) Mar. Dido Kent does not approve of ghosts, so when a friend is injured during the visit to a ruined abbey and claims to have seen the ghost of a nun before her fall, Dido vows to discover what really happened.

Dickinson, David. Death at the Jesus Hospital (Cons, 25.00) Mar. Lord Francis Powerscourt investigates when three men connected to an ancient City of London livery company are found with their throats cut and strange markings on their bodies.

Dunn, Carola. Anthem for a Doomed Youth (STM, 14.99) Feb. While her husband is working on the case of three murder victims, all army veterans in the Great War, Daisy Dalrymple is off visiting their daughter at school, where she is enmeshed in murder after the discovery of a murdered teacher in a maze.

Eastland, Sam. Archive 17 (BDD, 25.00) Mar. In the third in the series set in Stalinist Soviet Union, Inspector Pekkala is sent to a prison camp in Siberia in 1939 to solve the murder of a former tsarist cavalry captain.

_____. Shadow Pass (BDD, 15.00) Feb. Inspector Pekkala investigates the death of the Soviet Union’s top military engineer at the behest of Stalin.

Faye, Lyndsay. The Gods of Gotham (Put, 25.95) Mar. The first in a richly-detailed and well-plotted new series set in 1845 New York City features a man who has joined the newly-formed police department kept busy with a flood of Irish immigrants, who discovers the body of a young boy with his spleen removed.

Funder, Anna. All that I Am (HC, 25.99) Feb. Set in 1933 in the aftermath of the burning of the Reichstag in Germany, a group of dissident Germans risk their lives to alert the world to the growing menace of the Nazis.

Gallagher, Stephen. The Bedlam Detective (Crown, 25.00) Feb. A former policeman working as a special investigator to the Masters of Lunacy in England in 1912 decides questions of the sanity of men of property, but the case of a gentleman newly returned from the Amazon, who claims that he has been followed home by two creatures that are responsible for the deaths of two young girls is made difficult by the fact that the villages claim that there are beasts on the moor.

Gooden, Philip. The Ely Testament (SH, 28.95) Mar. When an attorney in his firm dies intestate, London attorney Tom Ansell travels to Cambridge to see if possible he left a will with his half-brother, who is arrested for murder in the latest in this Victorian series.

Grossman, Paul. Children of Wrath (STM, 25.99) Mar. Set in Berlin in the fall of 1929, police detective Willi Krause, decorated WWI hero and a Jew, tackles the case of a murderer known as the “Child-Eater of Berlin,” when a burlap sack of children’s bones with teeth marks surfaces in the sewer system.

Harris, C. S. When Maidens Mourn (NAL, 24.95) Mar. Sebastian St. Cyr and his reluctant bride find themselves involved in an intrigue concerning the legend of King Arthur, a future poet laureate, and murder.

_____. Where Shadows Dance (NAL, 7.99) Mar. St. Cyr is hunting for an assassin who targets diplomats in the latest in this Regency series.

Kerr, Philip. Field Gray (Png, 16.00) Mar. Bernie Gunther is dragooned into the SS in 1940 and sent to the Eastern Front, a bloodbath that catapults him into a divided Germany at the height of the Cold War. Highly recommended.

Knight, Bernard. Grounds for Appeal (SH, 28.95) Mar. Welsh forensic pathologist Richard Pryor and his business partner Angela Bray are called in when a headless body is found in a Cardiganshire bog in the third in this forensic series set in the 1950s.

Kondor, Vilmos. Budapest Noir (HC, 13.99) Feb. A debut set in Budapest in 1936 featuring a crime reporter who investigates the murder of a young prostitute found with a Jewish prayer book in her purse. For fans of the Bernie Gunther series.

Lansdale, Joe R. Edge of Dark Water (LB, 25.99) Mar. A beautifully written thriller set in Depression-era Texas, where three teen-aged friends decide to take the ashes of their murdered friend to Hollywood, but when they decide to take along the money her bank-robber brother had squirreled away, things get dangerous quickly. Highly recommended.

Lawton, John. Old Flames (Grove, 7.99) Feb. DCI Troy of Scotland Yard is assigned to be Krushchev’s bodyguard in London in 1956, but the discovery of the body of a Royal Navy diver leads him into an investigation of MI6 at the height of the Cold War.

Maclean, Anna. Louisa and the Crystal Gazer (NAL, 14.00) Feb. A skeptical Louisa May Alcott visits a spirit medium in Boston whose predictions come true, and when the woman is murdered she must find a killer.

McCleary, Carol. The Illusion of Murder (STM, 7.99) Mar. Attempting to go around the world in eighty days, intrepid reporter Nellie Bly joins a ship at Port Said filled with the most famous magicians in the world—and a murderer.

Morin, Donna Russo. The King’s Agent (Kens, 15.00) Mar. The royal art dealer for François I is ordered to retrieve an ancient Greek relic, and his search turns into a quest through Renaissance Italy, accompanied by a mysterious noblewoman.

Mosse, Kate. The Winter Ghosts (Brk, 15.00) An English WWI veteran is stranded in a small village where he meets a young innkeeper who keeps him up all night with her stories of a lost generation of young men in a ghostly story set in southern France in Feb. 1928.

Nixon, Fraser. The Men who Killed (PGW, 18.95) Feb. A wonderfully atmospheric noir novel set in 1926 Montreal, featuring a WWI veteran at loose ends who joins his adoptive brother in a scheme to smuggle contraband liquor into the U.S., leading him in to a treacherous underworld of organized crime and political corruption.

Olafsson, Olaf. Restoration (HC, 14.99) Feb. Set in Tuscany in 1944 as the Germans are retreating and the Allies are advancing, this historical thriller features an Englishwoman married to a missing Italian noblewoman running a clandestine orphanage and clinic from her restored villa.

Pastor, Ben. Liar Moon (Bitter Lemon, 14.95) Mar. Wehrmacht Major Martin Bora is posted to Italy in 1943, where he joins forces with an Italian policeman to investigate the murder of a Fascist party notable, and all the evidence points to his widow.

Pearl, Matthew. The Technologists (RH, 26.00) Feb. The students at the newly-established Massachusetts Institute of Technology are called into action when the calamitous collision of seven ships in Boston harbor are the first of a series of strange happenings caused by a scientific madman.

Pintoff, Stefanie. Secret of the White Rose (STM, 14.99) Mar. Criminologist Alistair Sinclair and DI Simon Ziele join forces again when a judge is murdered while presiding over the high-profile trial of an anarchist accused of setting off a bomb that killed passers-by including a child. In the latest in this excellent series set in turn-of-the-twentieth-century New York.

Polites, Taylor M. The Rebel Wife (SS, 25.00) Feb. A debut historical mystery set in Reconstruction-era South Caroline, with a widow whose much older, very wealthy husband dies carrying a large amount of money, and whose search for the money causes her to uncover dark secrets in her husband’s past.

Ramsay, Frederick. The Eighth Veil (PP, 14.95) Feb. A first-century rabbinic leader is the sleuth, tapped by Pontius Pilate to investigate the stabbing of a woman in Herod Antipas’ palace using both interrogation and forensic techniques to find the killer.

Reed, Mary and Eric Mayer. Nine for the Devil (PP, 24.95 hc, 14.95 tp) Mar. The emperor Justinian asks his lord Chamberlain to discover who poisoned Theodora, a woman with many enemies.

Robertson, Imogen. Anatomy of Murder (Vik, 26.95) Feb. Anatomist Gabriel Crowther and his assistant investigate how the body of an operative for the French ends up in the Thames in the second in this excellent series set in eighteenth-century London.

Romano-Lax, Andromeda. The Detour (Soho, 25.00) Feb. A German sent to Rome in 1938 as part of the Third Reich’s project to collect the great art of Europe to send to the Führer finds himself lost in the countryside after the Italians hired to escort him to the border with a famous classical statue leave him stranded.

Sansom, C.J. Heartstone (Png, 16.00) Feb. Matthew Sheldrake is asked by a servant of Queen Catherine to investigate the claims of wrongs committed against a young ward of the court in early 1545 as England is menaced by the threat of a French armada.

St. James, Simone. The Haunting of Maddy Clare (NAL, 14.00) Mar. A suspenseful debut ghost story set in 1920s England with a young woman who goes to work for a WWI veteran turned ghost hunter who has been summoned to investigate the spirit of a nineteenth-century maidservant who committed suicide.

Shields, Kieran. The Truth of all Things (Crown, 25.00) Mar. A debut set in Maine in 1892 with a deputy marshal joining forces with a part-Indian Pinkerton agent to find a killer who is ritually slaughtering young women in a case that may be tied to the bicentennial of the Salem witchcraft trials.

Skidmore, Chris. Death and the Virgin Queen (STM, 16.99) Mar. The discovery of new forensic evidence in the mysterious death of Amy Robsart, the wife of Robert Dudley gives us the facts in the case that shadowed the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

Spenser, Sally. Blackstone and the Great War (SH, 28.95) Mar. Scotland Yard DI Sam Blackstone is asked to look into the murder of a lieutenant stationed on the Western Front, a difficult assignment since so many of the witnesses and suspects have been killed in battle.

Tolkien, Simon. The King of Diamonds (STM, 14.99) Mar. DI Trave of the Oxford Police is heading up the manhunt for a man accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend at her uncle’s estate, but Trave suspects that the girl’s uncle may be responsible for the murder in a case set in 1960.

Walsh, Jill Paton. The Attenbury Emeralds (STM, 14.99) Feb. In a post-WWII continuation of the series featuring Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane, they re-investigate a case that Lord Peter thought he had resolved back in 1921.

Waters, Paul. The Philosopher Prince (Png, 15.95) Mar. When A corrupt imperial notary has two Roman Britons arrested for treason, they are befriended by a scholarly prince in the second in this series set in fourth-century Britain.

Willig, Lauren. The Garden Intrigue (Dutton, 25.95) Feb. When a British spy discovers that Napoleon is planning on unveiling a devastating secret new weapon against the British, he steals the plans, but his love for a young American widow compromises the operation. This series is great fun.

Winspear, Jacqueline. Elegy for Eddie (HC, 25.99) Mar. Maisie Dobbs returns to the Lambeth neighborhood where she grew up when a costermonger is killed in a violent accident and the police refuse to investigate.

_____. A Lesson in Secrets (HC, 14.99) Mar. Maisie takes a job at a Cambridge college as part of undercover work for the British intelligence service that believes there may be a connection with the German political situation.

Wurtele, Margaret. The Golden Hour (NAL, 15.00) Feb. A debut set in Tuscany in 1944 about a young aristocrat whose resistance fighter brother asks her to hide an injured fighter who is from an aristocratic Jewish family.

October/November 2011

Alexander, Tasha. A Crimson Warning (STM, 24.99) Nov. Lady Emily and her new husband must investigate when a vandal splashes paint on elegant London townhouses presaging the revelations of scandalous secrets, destroying the lives of high society families.

_____. Dangerous to Know (STM, 14.99) Oct. Lady Emily is recovering from her rather violent honeymoon in the countryside of Normandy when she discovers the body of brutally murdered young woman and must bring the killer to justice.

Ballard, Mignon F. Miss Dimple Disappears (STM, 14.99) Oct. First in a new series set in Georgia during WWII featuring a young schoolteacher who seeks to solve the mysterious disappearance of a beloved, elderly schoolmistress just before Thanksgiving, 1942.

Bebris, Carrie. The Deception at Lyme (STM, 22.99) Oct. Elizabeth and Darcy discover the body of a murdered woman along the sea walk in Lyme and suspect that her death is related to the child she had whose existence threatens the inheritance of one of her lovers.

Christie, Agatha. An Autobiography (HC, 29.99) Nov. A new edition of the autobiography originally published in 1977 that includes a CD of the grande dame of mystery writers expounding on her life as a writer. The perfect holiday gift for the mystery lover.

Colquhoun, Kate. Murder in the First-Class Carriage (Png, 25.95) Nov. The first murder on the railway occurred in 1864 when two clerks discovered bloodstains in the first-class carriage to Hackney, leading to public outcry and a manhunt for the murderer before he could escape to America.

Corby, Gary. The Iona Sanction (STM, 24.99) Nov. Pericles hires the investigator Nicolaus to solve the murder of Athens’ proxenos to Ephesus, but Nicolaus uncovers a conspiracy to invade Athens in the second in the series set in the 5^th century BCE.

_____. The Pericles Commission (STM, 14.99) The first in a series set in fifth-century BCE Athens featuring an ambitious son of a minor sculptor who is asked by Pericles to find the killer of a politician, whose death imperils the fledgling democracy.

Davis, Lindsey. Nemesis (STM, 14.99) Nov. Falco must brave the pestilential Pontine Marshes when the disappearance of a couple appears linked to a feud with a group of notorious freedmen living there.

_____. Shadows in Bronze (STM, 16.99) Oct. A reissue of the second in the Marcus Didius Falco series set in first century CE Rome.

Doherty, P.C. Templar Magician (STM, 25.99) Nov. When Raymond, Count of Tripoli is assassinated, Templars Robert de Payens and Edward Sendal investigate in a mystery set against the backdrop of the bloody Crusades.

Dueñas, María. The Time in Between (SS, 26.00) Nov. An epic novel set in Spain and North Africa about a poor seamstress from Madrid who rises to become a couture designer to the wives of Nazi officials allied with the Franco regime in Spain, and who becomes an undercover spy for the British. I loved this and spent two sleepless nights unable to put it down. Highly recommended.

Eco, Umberto. The Prague Cemetery (HMH, 28.00) Nov. The author of The Name of the Rose returns with another historical thriller set in nineteenth-century Europe taking as its focal point the creation of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a document used by anti-Semites and conspiracy theorists since the early twentieth century, with a main character who is a spy, a murderer, and a forger whose anti-Semiticsm drives him to cobble together the Protocols.

Finch, Charles. A Burial at Sea (STM, 24.99) Nov. Charles Lennox is asked to visit the newly-dug Suez Canal on a secret mission to help avert war when a series of English spies are found dead on French soil, but on the voyage out, he must solve the brutal murder of the ship’s second lieutenant.

Fortes, Susana. Waiting for Robert Capa (HC, 14.99) Oct. A fascinating look at Spain during the Civil War period and Paris in the 1930s featuring Polish activist Gerta Pohotylle and her real-life lover, the Hungarian Jewish émigré known as Robert Capa.

Freeman, Philip. Alexander the Great (SS, 17.00) Oct. A biography of one of the greatest of all military strategists whose real accomplishment was spreading Greek culture throughout the lands east of the Mediterranean.

Gregory, Philippa. The Lady of the Rivers (SS, 27.99) Oct. The story of the young Duchess of Bedford, a woman of mysterious powers who finds herself caught up in the treachery of the War of the Roses.

Hall, Patricia. Dead Beat (SH, 28.95) Oct. The first in a new series set in swinging London of the 1960s featuring an aspiring photographer searching for her missing brother, but the murder of a gay man causes her to join forces with the morally suspect DS Harry Barnard as they uncover a high stakes gangland power struggle.

Hamilton, Barbara. The Ninth Daughter (Brk, 7.99) Oct. The first in a series featuring Abigail Adams, set in pre-Revolutionary War Massachusetts, written by Barbara Hambly, finds Abigail hunting a murderer when her husband is accused of murder.

Horowitz, Anthony. The House of Silk (LB, 27.99) Nov. This is the first new Sherlock Holmes mystery ever authorized by the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Jecks, Michael. King’s Gold (IPG, 24.95) Nov. Edward II flees to the Cotswolds sheltered by Sir Baldwin and Simon in a case of treachery, international intrigue, and treasure set in early 14^th-century England.

Jenkins, Rebecca. Death of a Radical (IPG, 12.95) Nov. Set in rural England in 1812 an ex-military man who works for the Duke of Penrith investigates the death of a guest at the local inn, which may be related to local unrest over the industrialization of the area.

King, Laurie R and Les Klinger, eds. A Study in Sherlock (BDD, 15.00) Nov. A collection of stories inspired by the famous sleuth of Baker Street by modern masters such as Lee Child, Michael Connelly, and Jacqueline Winspear.

Kingsbury, Kate. Mistletoe and Mayhem (Brk, 7.99) Nov. It’s Christmas at the Pennyfoot Hotel, but the deaths of a maid and footman and the disappearance of a new baby turn the cheer to fear.

Lawton, John. A Lily of the Field (Grove, 14.95) Oct. The eighth in the Inspector Troy series moves from pre-WWII Vienna to Auschwitz to the New Mexico desert as it follows the lives of a musician and a physicist.

Liss, David. The Darkening Green (RH, 26.00) Oct. The first in a new series set in Regency England featuring an impoverished gentlewoman who discovers that she has magical powers.

MacLean, Anna. Louisa and the Country Bachelor (NAL, 14.00) Oct. A reissue of the second in the series featuring Louisa May Alcott investigating the murder of a young hiker while visiting her cousins in rural New Hampshire.

Meredith, D.E. The Devil’s Ribbon (STM, 25.99) Nov. Forensic pathologist Adolphus Hatton and his assistant have their hands full in London in 1858 with a cholera epidemic, Irish terrorists, and a serial murderer in the second in this Victorian series.

Moorehead, Caroline. A Train in Winter (HC, 27.99) Nov. The true story of 230 French women who were arrested and imprisoned by the Nazis for resistance activity and later transported to Auschwitz, united by love and friendship despite their hideous ordeal.

Morson, Ian. A Deadly Injustice (SH, 28.95) Nov. The second in the series set in thirteen-century Cathay features a Venetian investigator in the court of Kublai Khan who is sent to a remote town to investigate a poisoning case.

Parker, Ann. Mercury’s Rise (PP, 24.95) Nov. Traveling from Leadville to Manitou, saloon-owner Inez Stannert investigates when a fellow passenger dies after drinking a medicinal tonic in an engaging historical mystery with a strong female sleuth.

Penman, Sharon Kay. Lionheart (Put, 28.95) Oct. Set against the backdrop of the Holy Land during the Third Crusade, this epic historical novel follows the fortunes of the third son of Henry Plantagenet and Eleanor of Aquitaine as he fights against both his fellow Christians and the Infidels.

Perry, Anne. Anne Perry’s Christmas Vigil (BDD, 15.00) Oct. The two most recent Christmas novels in one volume.

_____. A Christmas Homecoming (BDD, 18.00) Oct.Thomas Pitt’s mother travels up the Yorkshire coast with her husband and an acting troupe and discovers that evil is something that one must invite inside in a heart-warming Christmas tale.

Rees, Matt. Mozart’s Last Aria (HC, 14.99) Nov. Mozart’s sister travels to Vienna to investigate her brother’s sudden and mysterious death and discovers that a web of deception, scandal, and fear revolving around the mysterious Freemasons points to a death by poison.

Robins, Madeleine. The Sleeping Partner (Plus One, 18.95) Oct. Sarah Tolerance, a freelance “agent of inquiry” in Regency London, is hired by a woman looking for her missing sister who has eloped, only to discover ties to her own family and a wider war-profiteering scandal.

Royal, Patricia. A Killing Season (PP, 24.95 hc, 14.95 tp) Oct. Brother Thomas and Prioress Eleanor of Tyndal witness the fatal fall of one of the Baron Herbert’s sons as they approach his castle, and when they offer to investigate, they find that many believe it is the work of satan in the latest in the series set in 13^th-century England.

Todd, Jack. Rain Falls Like Mercy (SS, 25.00) Nov. Set in Wyoming in 1941, this historical crime novel opens with the murder of a young woman, but the sheriff cannot complete his investigation when he is sent overseas to fight in WWII, even though he is convinced that the murderer is the psychotic son of a wealthy rancher.

Tremayne, Peter. Chalice of Blood (STM, 25.99) Nov. Sister Fidelma investigates the murder of an eminent scholar at the Abbey of Lios Mor in a classic locked-room mystery.

_____. The Dove of Death (STM, 14.99) Oct. Fidelma and Brother Eadwulf escape the slaughter when pirates attack an Irish merchant ship, but Fidelma vows to find the attackers who killed her cousin.

Trow, M.J. Dark Entry (SH, 28.95) The first in a new series featuring Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe who investigates the suspicious death of a fellow student at King’s College, Cambridge and must seek the aid of Dr. John Dee, the queen’s enigmatic astrologer.

Westerson, Jeri. The Demon’s Parchment (STM, 14.99) Oct. Disgraced knight Crispin Guest is asked by a Jewish physician in London to help find stolen parchments that might contain information relating to the recent, gruesome murders of young boys in the latest in the series set in 14^th-century London.

_____. Troubled Bones (STM, 25.99) Oct. The Archbishop of Canterbury asks disgraced knight Crispin Guest to investigate a threat against the bones of the martyr and saint, Thomas a Beckett, and while there he meets up with an old acquaintance, Geoffrey Chaucer.

Willig, Lauren. The Mischief of the Mistletoe (NAL, 15.00) Nov. A young woman takes a teaching position at a girls’ school in Bath where she meets the international spy known as the “Pink Carnation” and embarks on a Yuletide adventure in the latest in this charming series set in Regency England.

Wilson, Laura. The Lover (F&M, 14.95) Nov. Set during the London Blitz in 1940, where someone is murdering prostitutes just like Jack the Ripper, based on the true story of the “Blackout Ripper.”

August/September 2011

Albert, Susan Wittig. The Tale of Castle Cottage (Brk, 24.95) Sept. Beatrix Potter and her fiancé must postpone their wedding as the remodeling of their future home runs into troubling problems.

_____. The Tale of Oat Cake Crag (Brk, 7.99) Sept. Beatrix Potter investigates when a friend in Near Sawrey begins receiving anonymous letters that threaten her wedding plans.

Bailey, Elizabeth. The Gilded Shroud (Brk, 15.00) Sept. The first in a new Regency series, featuring the new companion to the Dowager Lady Polbrooke, who investigates when the marchioness is murdered in the family mansion.

Barron, Stephanie. Jane and the Canterbury Tale (BDD, 15.00) Sept. Jane Austen is visiting her brother, the first magistrate of the area, when the body of a man is found on the Pilgrim’s Way dating back to the time of Chaucer.

Baxter, Holly. Tears of the Dragon (PP, 14.95) Aug. In order to help out her family in Depression-era Chicago, a young woman agrees to work at a party given by a Chinese dealer in antiques and jade, but the party is disrupted when a dying man enters.

Bell, Albert A. The Corpus Conundrum (Ingalls, 15.95) Sept. Pliny the Younger investigates when a corpse is found on the grounds of his villa outside of Rome in a mystery set in the first century CE.

Benn, James R. A Mortal Terror (Soho, 25.00) Sept. Billy Boyle is sent to Italy to investigate the murders of two U.S. Army officers just before the invasion at Anzio begins.

_____. Rag and Bone (Soho, 14.00) Sept. Billy Boyle is sent to London to investigate the murder of a Soviet embassy official and discovers that the murder mirrors the massacre of twenty thousand Polish officers in the Katyn Forest in a mystery set during WWII.

Bowen, Rhys. Naughty in Nice (Brk, 24.95) Sept. Lady Georgianna is sent to Nice by Her Majesty the Queen to recover a stolen snuffbox, but a stolen necklace and a murder make her stay less than nice.

_____. Royal Blood (Brk, 7.99) Sept. Lady Georgiana accepts an invitation from the Queen to represent the royal family at a wedding in Transylvania, but the murder of a wedding guest sends her sleuthing.

Clare, Alys. The Rose of the World (SH, 28.95) Aug. The residents of Hawkenlye Abbey discover the body of a murdered man while searching for the former abbess’s granddaughter in the nearby woods in the latest in this thirteenth-century series.

Cleverly, Barbara. Blood Royal (Soho, 25.00) Sept. Returning from India in 1922, Joe Sandilands is assigned to head up Scotland Yard’s Special Irish Branch, but when terrorist violence erupts he discovers that there are ties to the Romanov murders and the disappearance of the Russian Tsar’s fortune.

_____. Strange Images of Death (Soho, 14.00) Sept. Joe Sandilands agrees to deliver his niece to an artist’s retreat in Provence in 1926, but a mysterious crime committed just before his arrival persuades him to stay and investigate.

Collins, Max Allan. Bye Bye, Baby (STM, 24.99) Aug. PI Nate Heller is hired by Marilyn Monroe to tap her phone during nasty negotiations with her film studio and he discovers that the CIA, the FBI, and the mafia are all involved with America’s cultural icon, so after her death he vows to find her killer.

Creel, Ann Howard. The Magic of Ordinary Days (Png, 14.00) Sept. A young woman is caught up in the drama of WWII when she impulsively marries a man she hardly knows and moves to a remote Colorado outpost, where her friendship with two Japanese-American sisters in an internment camp leads to crime and betrayal.

Cussler, Clive and Justin Scott. The Race (Put, 27.95) Sept. Detective Isaac Bell must protect an aviatrix competing in a cross-country airplane race in 1909 from her deranged ex-husband in the fourth historical thriller.

Dams, Jeanne M. Murder in Burnt Orange (Pers, 15.95) Sept. In the eighth in the series set in early twentieth-century Indiana, Swedish immigrant Hilda Johansson, pregnant during a sweltering summer turns her hand to local crimes, including a spate of train wrecks in the Midwest.

Davis, Lindsey. The Silver Pigs (STM, 16.99) Sept. A reissue of the first Falco mystery set in Rome. About time!

Diener, Michelle. Illuminations (Pkt, 15.00) Aug. A courtier in the court of Henry VIII and a young artist who has received a royal commission uncover secrets that threaten the legitimacy of the Tudor dynasty in a novel of intrigue, romance, and scandal.

Dunmore, Helen. The Betrayal (Grove, 14.95) Sept. The second in a series of novels focusing on a family struggling to survive in Stalinist Russia. Here the young doctor must treat the gravely ill son of a senior secret police official, realizing that the fate of the family is bound to the fate of the child.

Eccles, Marjorie. The Cuckoo’s Child (SH, 28.95) July. A young woman seeking to be independent of her wealthy family takes a job cataloguing books in the library of a Yorkshire manor house, but when a man’s body is found nearby, she turns to sleuthing in a standalone set in 1909.

Finch, Charles. A Stranger in Mayfair (STM, 14.99) July. Charles Lenox is asked by a colleague in Parliament to look into the murder of a footman, which leads him to dark secrets that his colleague has kept hidden.

Fleming, Irene. The Brink of Fame (STM, 25.99) Aug. A young woman is offered the chance to direct a film in Hollywood in 1913, if she will first track down a missing star actor for a film tycoon.

Follett, Ken. Fall of Giants (NAL, 25.00) Sept. The first of a trilogy following five families whose fates are intertwined with each other and the history of the twentieth century.

Glenn, Alan. Amerikan Eagle (BDD, 7.99) Aug. A detective story set in New England in the 1940s where one man’s murder can change the course of history.

Grossman, Paul. The Sleepwalkers (STM, 14.99) Sept. A decorated WWI veteran must solve a series of bizarre murders in Berlin at the end of the Weimar Republic, a task that is made more difficult because he is Jewish. Highly recommended.

Harris, C.S. What Remains of Heaven (NAL, 7.99) Aug. A reissue of an earlier one in the series with St. Cyr investigating the murder of the controversial Bishop of London.

Hills, Kathleen. The Kingdom where Nobody Dies (PP, 14.95) Aug. In the fourth in this series set in 1950s Michigan, a young girl discovers her father dead beside his tractor with the Township Constable standing over him.

Izner, Claude. The Assassin in the Marais (STM, 24.99) Sept. Victor Legris goes in pursuit of a decorative goblet that brings death in its wake in the latest in this charming series set in Belle Époque Paris.

_____. The Montmartre Investigation (STM, 14.99) Sept. Legris must find out the identity of a young woman who is the victim of a grisly murder on the Boulevard Montmartre after a single red shoe is delivered to his shop following the discovery of the body.

Johnson, D. E. Motor City Shakedown (STM, 24.99) Sept.The second in the series set in Detroit in 1911 featuring Will Anderson who goes up against the crime bosses to find the murderer of his friend.

Jurjevics, Juris. Red Flags (HMH, 26.00) Sept. A military investigator is sent to a remote base to disrupt the funding of North Vietnamese troops through opium production, where he discovers high-level corruption in a thriller set during the Vietnam War.

Kent, Kathleen. The Traitor’s Wife (LB, 14.99) Sept. A historical thriller set in colonial Massachusetts about a strong-willed woman who must save the man she loves from his mysterious past.

King, Laurie R. Pirate King (BDD, 25.00) Sept. Mary Russell goes to Lisbon in 1924 to work undercover for a studio on a film about The Pirates of Penzance because the British government has suspicions that the studio has ties to a criminal organization.

McPherson, Catriona. Dandy Gilver and the Proper Treatment of Bloodstains (STM, 23.99) Aug. The first U.S. appearance of an engaging series set in post-WWI Britain, featuring a young aristocrat who solves crimes, who goes undercover as a maid to help a woman who fears her husband is trying to kill her. I really like this series.

Morton, Carson. Stealing Mona Lisa (STM, 24.99) Aug. A caper novel set in Paris featuring an Argentine con-artist who puts together a group of thieves to steal the greatest prize of all—the Mona Lisa.

O’Brien, Geoffrey. The Fall of the House of Walworth (STM, 15.99) Aug. The true story of a scion of a prominent New York family during the Gilded Age whose murder of his father forces his family to reveal their dirty secrets to save him from execution.

Pajer, Bernadette. A Spark of Death (PP, 24.95 hc., 14.95 tp). July. Set in Seattle in 1901 this debut introduces an engineering professor who comes under suspicion when a rival professor is electrocuted.

Pérez-Reverte, Arturo. Pirates of the Levant (Png, 16.00) Aug. Captain Alatriste and his foster son accept a job as mercenaries aboard a Spanish galleon on a journey to North Africa.

Perry, Anne. Acceptable Loss (Ball, 26.00) Aug. When a dead man surfaces in the Thames, William Monk is plunged into a case involving child pornography and a dreadful conspiracy.

Phillips, Scott. The Adjustment (Counterpoint, 25.00) Aug. A gritty noir set in post WWII Wichita, Kansas with a protagonist who is as interesting as he is repellent as he tries to track down the person blackmailing him about his unscrupulous dealings as a corrupt quartermaster and pimp during the war. Highly recommended.

Rowe, Rosemay. The Vestal Vanishes (SH, 28.95) Aug. Freed slave Libertus is asked to track down a missing bride, a former vestal virgin whose veiled face nobody knows, before her wealthy bridegroom arrives in Britannia from Rome.

Rowland, Laura Joh. The Ronin’s Mistress (STM, 24.99) Sept. Sano Ichiro has just days to find out why 47 warriors waited two years to kill the man at the heart of the scandal that turned them from samurai into masterless ronin.

Saylor, Steven. Empire (STM, 15.99) Sept. A continuation of the family saga of the aristocratic Pinarius family witnessing the greatest empire in the ancient world in all its splendor and violence.

Schiff, Stacy. Cleopatra: A Life (LB, 16.99) Sept. A beautifully written biography of one of the most fascinating and most maligned women in history. Excellent.

Scott, A.D. A Double Death on the Black Isle (SS, 15.00) Aug. When two deaths occur on the same day involving the same family on the same estate in a remote island in the Scottish Highlands, reporter Joanne Ross is offered the chance to report the murders, and discovers secrets that will change the area forever in the second in this series set in 1950s Scotland.

Sharber, Sarah. R. Louise’s War (SH, 27.95) Sept. The first in a new series set in Washington, D.C. in 1942 introduces a young widow working in the OSS office, who discovers that her college roommate and his husband are trying to escape the Nazi persecution of the Jews, but her boss suffers a suspicious heart attack before he can help.

Spicer, Paul. The Temptress (STM, 14.99) Aug. The true story of the scandalous Alice de Janzé who left her aristocratic French husband and ran off to Kenya to become the lover of the notorious womanizer Joss Hay, Lord Errol, whose murder in 1041 was never solved. If you like a story of colonial Europeans behaving very badly, you’ll love this well-researched account.

Stanley, Kelli. City of Dragons (STM, 14.99) Sept. A noir debut set in San Francisco in 1940 where a PI stumbles upon the body of a murdered Japanese man during a festival in Chinatown to raise money for the Chinese war effort.

_____. City of Secrets (STM, 24.99) Sept. The second in the noir series set in 1940s San Francisco where the body of a young woman is found at the World’s Fair with an anti-Semitic slur marked on her body.

Thompson, Brian. The Widow’s Secret (IPG, 13.95) A debut Victorian historical mystery featuring a widowed writer who specializes in writing pot-boiler novels to support herself, and who becomes intrigued by the murder of a London prostitute.

Todd, Charles. A Bitter Truth (HC, 24.99) Sept. Home on leave, battlefield nurse Bess Crawford finds a woman huddled on her doorstep afraid to return to her Sussex home after having been badly beaten by her army officer husband, and when Bess accompanies her home, she discovers a house filled with menace and the body of a murdered soldier. An excellent WWI-era series.

____. An Impartial Witness (HC, 14.99) Sept. Bess Crawford is the last to see a woman who is later murdered in a well-plotted mystery set in England.

_____. A Test of Wills (HC, 14.99) Sept. A reissue of the first in the Ian Rutledge series set after WWI.

Wilson, Edward. The Darkling Spy (Dufour, 24.95) July. Set in Berlin in 1956 an intelligent spy thriller about an English agent who is after a deadly and elusive German spy who may be persuaded to defect.

Wright, Nancy Means. The Nightmare (Pers, 15.95) Sept. Mary Wollstonecraft agrees to help her friend artist Henry Fuseli when his painting The Nightmare is stolen in a case that leads to murder.

Zimler, Richard. The Warsaw Anagrams (Overlook, 25.95) Aug. The murder of a young boy in Warsaw’s Jewish ghetto in 1940 is part of a series of child murders that may be the work of a Jewish killer in the latest historical thriller.