February/March 2020

New and Forthcoming in Hardcover

Adams, Ellery. The Book of Candlelight (Ken, 26.00) Feb. When a local Cherokee potter is found dead after the local river floods its banks, the death is attributed to natural causes, but when a second death occurs bookstore owner Nora and the Secret, Book, and Scone Society decide to investigate.

Anderson, Jake. Gone at Midnight (RH, 26.00) Feb. The author, a journalist, revisits the murder of a student from Vancouver whose body was found floating in a water tank on the roof of L.A.’s Hotel Cecil, an unsolved case from 2013 that has created an internet sensation, in part because of the decades-long history of unsavory and inexplicable goings-on at the hotel.

Armstrong, Kelley. Alone in the Wild (STM, 27.99) Feb. While outside of Rockton, the off-grid sanctuary for people who need to disappear, Casey Duncan and the local sheriff find a dead woman clutching a barely-alive newborn who is not her child, so they visit the surround settlements to find the baby’s biological family—a family that may not be the best option for a child. I love this series.

Avon, Joy. In Cold Chamomile (CL, 26.99) Feb. Tea-shop manager Callie investigates when her great-aunt’s lost love becomes the chief suspect in the murder of a crooked book appraiser.

Barber, Kathleen. Follow Me (SS, 27.00) Feb. A very creepy story that will make you rethink how much of your life you want to share online about a woman whose Instagram account inspires an obsessive fan who is determined to get to know her more deeply, and who finds a way to insert himself into her life.

Bartz, Andrea. The Herd (Ball, 27.00) Mar. When a writer accepts an invitation to join a high-powered woman’s network that includes a woman who has founded a woman’s club and workspace, she decides to write about the group and its founder, but shortly after her subject disappears and she discovers long-buried secrets in her search for the missing woman.

Berry, Steve. The Warsaw Protocol (STM, 28.99) Feb. Cotton Malone is tasked by his former Justice Department agency to steal one of seven holy relics in order to gain admittance to an illicit auction of Soviet-era art objets in Russia with an eye toward thwarting Russian interference in Poland.

Beyda, Emily. The Body Double (DD, 26.95) Mar. A young woman working in a theater is hired to move to L.A. and become the stand-in for a famous movie star who has suffered a mental breakdown and needs someone to “be her” for media events, but the more the woman studies the actress, the more she wonders what really caused her collapse and who is really helping her in a noir look at Hollywood.

Bohjalian, Chris. The Red Lotus (DD, 27.95) Mar. When her boyfriend is found dead during a bicycling tour of Vietnam, an ER doctor discovers that he had lied about his interest in Vietnam, among other things, and hires a PI to investigate, discovering a global plot that puts her in danger.

Bouman, Tom. The Bramble and the Rose (Nor, 25.95) Mar. Small-town policeman Henry Farrell investigates when the decapitated body of a man is found in the woods in a case that finds him on the run after the murderers target him.

Box, C.J. Long Range (Put, 28.00) Mar. Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett has two attacks to investigate: one a bizarre grizzly attack and the other the shooting of a local judge from an impossibly long range that left his wife seriously wounded. TFOB.

Carson, Scott. The Chill (SS, 27.00) Feb. A spooky story set in upstate New York where a dam inspector investigates the site of a village that was drowned beneath a reservoir, and notices that the spirits of the village are demanding a sacrifice. Carson is actually mystery writer Michael Koryta, and his books written under the Carson name will have a supernatural element.

Chavez, Heather. No Bad Deed (HC, 26.99) Feb. A veterinarian stops to help when she sees a man threatening a woman on a rainy night, and after he steals her car with her purse inside, her husband disappears, leaving her with no choice but to try to discover the connection between the two events and to save her husband in a debut novel of suspense. TFOB.

Childs, Laura. Lavender Blue Murder (Brk, 26.00) Mar. Tea-shop owner Theodosia is invited to a bird hunt in the style of an English shooting party, but the festivities are cut short when she finds the body of their host in a neighboring lavender field.

Coben, Harlan. The Boy from the Woods (GC, 29.00) Mar. A man who was found as a child living feral in the woods agrees to help when a teenaged girl goes missing after being the victim of bullying, and must use his skills to find her.

Cussler, Clive and Graham Brown. Journey of the Pharaohs (Put, 29.00) Mar. The NUMA crew discover a stone tablet with Egyptian hieroglyphics in a sinking trawler, leading them on a treasure hunt across Europe that ends in a cave in the Grand Canyon.

Daugherty, Christi. Revolver Road (STM, 27.99) Mar. The disappearance of a famous musician with a new album set to release strikes Savannah crime reporter Harper McClain as sinister, and sure enough, his body is found with two bullet holes in a case that may be tied to the threats she is receiving against her own life. I love this clever, atmospheric series.

Dams, Jeanne. Death in the Garden City (SH, 28.99) Dorothy and her husband go to Vancouver Island to investigate mysterious incidents that culminate in the murders of two people and the disappearance of a third.

Dolan, Harry. The Good Killer (Mys, 26.00) Feb. An Iraq veteran who stops a mass shooter in a Houston mall goes on the run with his wife after the resulting publicity reveals his whereabouts to two men who are after him, sending him on a cross-country chase. Dolan writes intelligent, suspenseful thrillers and this one is great.

Duckworth, Charlotte. Unfollow Me (CL, 26.99) Mar. When a popular vlogger who posts about the difficulties of parenting, despite her perfect life, well-behaved children, and adoring husband, abruptly disappears and deletes all of her posts, two of her avid fans make it their mission to investigate every aspect of her life in a debut domestic thriller.

Dunnett, Kaitlyn. A View to a Kilt (Ken, 26.00) Feb. When her uncle, MIA in Vietnam and missing over 50 years, is found dead in her backyard and her father is arrested for murder, Liss MacCrimmon must find a killer in a case that may be related to decades-old secrets among the townspeople of Moosetookalook, Maine.

Engel, Amy. The Familiar Dark (Dut, 26.00) Mar. A woman vows to do whatever it takes to find justice for her daughter who was murdered on the town playground in a gritty noir set in a dying town in the Missouri Ozarks.

Fluke, Joanne. Coconut Layer Cake Murder (Ken, 27.00) Feb. Hannah Swenson agrees to help when her sister’s detective boyfriend becomes the suspect in the murder of a woman he drove home from a bar because she’d had too much to drink, but he can remember nothing of the evening after he arrived at her house and found her body in the morning.

Friedman, Daniel. Running out of Road (STM, 26.99) Mar. Retired Memphis police detective Buck Schatz revisits a decades-old murder case when the producer of a true-crime podcast reopens the case on the eve of the execution of an affluent man convicted of killing his wife.

Graves, Sarah. Death by Chocolate Frosted Doughnut (Ken, 26.00) Mar. Bakery owner Jake becomes the chief suspect when an unpleasant TV food personality is found dead in the bakery’s cellar during the town’s Pirate Festival in the third in this cozy series.

Grippando, James. The Big Lie (HC, 27.99) Feb. In a timely legal thriller, Florida attorney Jack Swyteck is hired by an elector in the presidential election who wants to cross party lines and change her vote, and between a corrupt incumbent and a manipulative opposing candidate and their obsessively partisan followers, it’s all he can do to keep her alive.

Guttridge, Peter. The Lady of the Lake (SH, 28.99) Mar. Brighton DI Sarah Gilchrist and her sergeant investigate when a man is found with his throat slit in a lake belonging to a Hollywood film star in a witty police procedural.

Hammer, Joshua. The Falcon Thief (SS, 26.00) Feb. The suspenseful—and ultimately horrifying—true story of the smugglers who will risk everything to capture birds of prey and the Middle Eastern billionaires who will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for them.

Hannah, Sophie. Perfect Little Children (HC, 27.99) Feb. A woman happens to drive by the house of her former best friend twelve years after they parted ways and is shocked to see her friend with two children who look to be three and five, the age they were twelve years ago.

Harrison, Rachel. The Return (Brk, 26.00) Mar. After disappearing for two years, a woman reappears and sets up a reunion with her college friends at an isolated inn, but the friends begin to wonder if their friend has changed greatly or if someone—or something—else has returned.

Hendricks, Greer and Sarah Pekkanen. You Are Not Alone (STM, 27.99) Mar. After a lonely woman witnesses a stranger throwing herself in front of a Manhattan subway train, she impulsively shows up at the woman’s memorial service, where she meets her friends, who in turn worry that the victim had talked to the witness about their vigilante justice system.

Hood, Joshua. Robert Ludlum’s the Treadstone Resurrection (Put, 27.00) Feb. In the first of a new series inspired by Ludlum’s Bourne thrillers, a former member of a black ops group has retired to become a carpenter in rural Washington, but when a group of assassins come after him without warning, he must use all his skills to survive long enough to figure out why.

Kellerman, Jonathan. The Museum of Desire (Ball, 28.99) Feb. LAPD homicide detective Milo Sturgis calls in Alex Delaware when he must solve the mystery of four victims with no connections between them, killed in different ways, and left together in a stretch limo.

Kent, Kathleen. The Burn (Mull, 27.00) Feb. On leave from the Dallas PD after her last case, a run-in with a cult, Detective Betty Rhyzyk decides to go rogue to investigate the cult, only to discover that her investigation leads directly to the drug cartel and a group of crooked cops.

Lang, Essie. Death on the Page (CL, 26.99) Mar. Bookstore manager Shelby must turn sleuth when a popular true-crime writer in town for research on a Prohibition-era gangster is found dead in Blye Island castle where her book-signing is held.

Little, Elizabeth. Pretty as a Picture (Vik, 27.00) Feb. An autistic film editor joins the crew of a film based on an unsolved crime from 25 years ago, only to discover that the shoot is plagued by a series of freak accidents that may not be accidents at all.

Lodge, Gytha. Watching from the Dark (RH, 27.00) Feb. DCI Sheens and his team investigate the suicide of a young art student after receiving a frantic phone call from an unidentified man who claims she was attacked off-camera during a Skype call, and find that she had little motive for killing herself, although a number of her friends have secrets worth killing for.

Mandel, Emily St. John. The Glass Hotel (Knopf, 26.95) Mar. In a combination ghost story and financial thriller, a brother and sister move in and out of each other’s life as they navigate through Ponzi schemes, disappearances, life in a white-collar prison, and drug addiction. I love this author and read everything she writes.

Margolin, Phillip. A Reasonable Doubt (STM, 27.99) Mar. When a magician who had been linked to three murders and suspicious deaths years before disappears while debuting a new magic trick, defense attorney Robin Lockwood is suspicious that, despite his many enemies, he may have engineered his own disappearance.

McInnis, S.L. Framed (GC, 28.00) Feb. In a fast-paced suspense debut that unfurls in the space of three days, a woman welcomes her estranged college roommate into her seemingly perfect suburban life, not realizing that her friend is on the run from a drug deal gone horribly wrong.

McMahon, John. The Evil Men Do (Put, 27.00) Mar. In the second in the series, Georgia homicide detective P.T. Marsh investigates the suspicious death of an aging real-estate magnate with suspects ranging from the man’s dominatrix lover to irate farmers whose land he robbed to a drug-addled truck driver. TFOB.

Moore, Graham. The Holdout (RH, 28.00) Feb. When the jurors in a controversial, high-profile murder trial are reunited for a true-crime documentary one of them is found murdered in her hotel room in stellar, thought-provoking legal thriller.

Mosley, Walter. Trouble Is What I Do (Mull, 24.00) Feb. NYC PI Leonid McGill is hired to get a message to the granddaughter of a black blues player, a young woman whose father is a virulent racist.

Mullin, Caitlin. Please See Us (SS, 26.99) Mar. A moving novel of suspense set in Atlantic City featuring a boardwalk medium and a woman escaping from personal/professional setback who join forces to investigate the disappearance of marginal women, drug users, runaways, escorts, and prostitutes who are the victims of a serial killer and are calling to be found. I loved this for its paranormal tinge, for its moving look at the lives of women who are so often dismissed, and for its look at a place that was destroyed by wealth and glitz and false glamor.

O’Connor, Carlene. Murder in an Irish Cottage (Ken, 26.00) Mar. Siobhan accompanies her fiancé when he gets a call from his cousin that her mother has been murdered, and while the villagers are all sure that there’s supernatural evil afoot, Siobhan knows that human evil is at work.

Patterson, James and Andrew Bourelle. Texas Outlaw (GC, 28.00) Mar. A Texas Ranger is sent to a small town to investigate the death of a city councilman, a death that everyone else in the town is ready to dismiss as an accident.

Patterson, James and James O. Born. Blindside (Hach, 28.00) Feb. NYPD detective Michael Bennett agrees to investigate a cybercrime in a quid-pro-quo deal with the mayor, but before he knows it he’s dealing with the FBI and a transnational criminal organization.

Philips, Scott. That Left Turn at Albuquerque (Soho, 27.95) Mar. An attorney on the verge of bankruptcy—and worse who has used $200,000 of a client’s money in a cocaine deal that went south—decides to recoup his fortunes through an art forgery scheme, not realizing that the people he needs for the job all have their own agendas. Philips is a noir master with a wicked sense of humor. Highly recommended.

Pinborough, Sarah. Dead to Her (HC, 27.99) Feb. A domestic suspense novel filled with rancor, greed, and jealousy wrapped up in Southern politesse with the young wife of a prominent attorney taking under her wing the new, very young, and very black wife that her husband’s senior law partner has brought back from London.

Pisarcik, Ian. Before Familiar Woods (CL, 26.99) Mar. A woman living in a dying Vermont town struggles when her husband disappears three years after local boys were found dead on the outskirts of town, and her quest to find her husband is joined by a returning veteran who is struggling to raise his son after his wife abandons him in a gritty debut.

Preston, Douglas and Lincoln Child. Crooked River (GC, 29.00) Feb. FBI Agent Pendergast investigates when dozens of shoes wash up on the sands of Florida’s Sanibel Island—shoes filled with severed human feet.

Queally, James. Line of Sight (PGW, 26.00) Mar. A former crime reporter turned PI in Newark is given a video of an act of police brutality that puts him at odds with the cops with whom he has worked for years in a timely debut thriller.

Quinn, Holly. A Crafter Quilts a Crime (CL, 26.99) Feb. During a town festival, a live mannequin in the window of Samantha Kane’s craft shop dies unexpectedly and Sammy and her friends decide to investigate in the third in a crafting series complete with recipes, a charming small-town setting, and a lovable dog.

Quirk, Matthew. The Hour of the Assassin (HC, 27.99) Mar. A Secret Service agent whose job it is to assess possible breaches in the security of high-level government officials discovers a former CIA chief attacked and unconscious in his home—and finds himself framed for the attack, in a clever novel of suspense.

Redmond, Heather. Journaled to Death (SH, 28.99) Feb. In the first of a new cozy series, a woman who produces how-to vlogs with her teenaged daughter investigates when her cousin, who is renting her basement room, is found murdered, only to discover that she really didn’t know him at all.

Reichs, Kathy. A Conspiracy of Bones (SS, 27.00) Mar. Temperance Brennan returns, and fighting the aftereffects of her own health problems, must discover the identity of an unidentified man who is found without his face and hands.

Robb, J.D. Golden in Death (STM, 28.99) Feb. In her 50^th case, Eve Dallas investigates when people are murdered by anonymous packages filled with toxic gas, starting with a beloved pediatrician.

Rosenfelt, David. The K Team (STM, 27.99) Mar. In a spin-off of the Andy Carpenter series, Andy’s wife Laurie starts a PI business with a former police colleague and his K9 partner, and their first case involves a judge who is being extorted in a clever conspiracy.

Ryan, Annelise. Dead Ringer (Ken, 26.00) Mar. Wisconsin medical examiner Mattie Winston investigates when the body of an unidentified woman is found, showing the same M.O. as a series of killings in a nearby town, but the killer there has been convicted and is in prison.

Schaffhausen, Joanna. All the Best Lies (STM, 27.99) Feb. FBI agent Reed Markham asks Massachusetts police detective Ellery Hathaway to help him investigate when he discovers that his adopted father is his real father and that his Puerto Rican mother was murdered when he was a baby. Clever twists and skillful characterization make this a winner. TFOB.

Skelton, Douglas. Thunder Bay (Arcade, 25.99) Feb. A reporter gets a tip that a man suspected of having killed his girlfriend will be returning to the Hebridean island of Stoirm, she decides to follow the story and the islanders’ reaction to his return, but she discovers that the woman’s death warrants more investigation amid the islanders’ dark secrets.

Staples, Dennis E. This Town Sleeps (IPS, 26.00) Mar. In this debut that is part mystery, part ghost story, and part literary gay novel, a young gay man in a small town on the Ojibwe Reservation in northern Minnesota is led by a ghost dog to the grave of a young sports hero who was murdered almost a decade earlier, and his investigation into the death leads him to an Ojibwe legend that may help resolve the mystery.

St. James, Simone. The Sun Down Motel (Brk, 26.00) Feb. In a supernatural thriller, a young woman seeking answers to the mysterious disappearance of her aunt 35 years before while working at a seedy motel in upstate New York discovers that there were a series of unsolved murders at the time of her aunt’s disappearance.

Straley, John. What is Time to a Pig? (Soho, 27.95) Feb. In the near-distant future a man is kidnapped from prison and put in a drug-induced haze because the kidnappers believe that he knows the whereabouts of a North Korean nuclear bomb that landed near Cold Storage, Alaska. If you haven’t tried this funny series, please do.

Swanson, Peter. Eight Perfect Murders (HC, 27.99) Mar. A tour-de-force of a mystery with a bookstore owner who finds himself at the center of an FBI investigation when a serial killer kills people according to his list of fiction’s most “perfect” murders. You’re going to want to read this accompanied by a stack of classic mysteries. Highly recommended. TFOB.

Takhar, Helen Monks. Precious You (RH, 26.00) Mar. When her publisher’s niece becomes her new intern, a trade magazine editor only gradually comes to realize that the young woman has designs on both her job and her life in a suspenseful novel of psychological suspense.

Thomas, Russ. Firewatching (Put, 26.00) Feb. In the first of a new police-procedural series, a cold-case detective in Sheffield is assigned the case of a wealthy businessman who disappeared six years ago after his remains are found bricked up in a wall of his home, a case with multiple suspects that is hampered by a series of arson fires occurring in the area.

Wegert, Tessa. Death in the Family (Brk, 26.00) Feb. A former NYPD detective now working for the New York State Park Police in a remote part of the state is called to investigate the murder of the girlfriend of the scion of a prominent family in a case that has ties to a serial killer case she had worked on previously in a debut police procedural.

Wells, Carolyn. Murder in the Bookshop (HC, 15.99) Mar. Long out of print and unjustly neglected, this locked-room mystery from the Golden Age is a bibliophile’s delight.

White, Randy Wayne. Salt River (Put, 27.00) Feb. A shady IRS agent accusing Doc of selling antique Spanish gold agrees to make his tax problems go away if he will reveal where more treasure might be, while Tomlinson is contacted by his adult children from the time in his past when he was a sperm donor.

Woods, Stuart. Hit List (Put, 28.00) Mar. Stone Barrington finds his name on the list of a murderer and must face the criminal before anyone else is killed.

New and Forthcoming in Paperback Reprint

Baldacci, David. Long Road to Mercy (GC, 9.99) Feb.

Childs, Laura. Broken Bone China (Brk, 7.99) Feb.

Evanovich, Janet and Peter Evanovich. The Big Kahuna (Put, 9.99) Mar.

Finder, Joseph. Company Man (STM, 9.99) Feb. Reissue.

Flower, Amanda. Death and Daisies (CL, 7.99) Mar.

Fluke, Joanne. The Chocolate Cream Pie Murder (Ken, 7.99) Feb.

Fox, Candice. Redemption Point (STM, 9.99) Feb.

Hamilton, Glen Erik. Mercy River (HC, 7.99) Mar.

Iles, Greg. Cemetery Road (HC, 9.99) Jan.

Koontz, Dean. The Night Window (BDD, 9.99) Mar.

O’Connor, Carlene. Murder in an Irish Pub (Ken, 7.99) Feb.

Page, Katherine Hall. The Body in the Wake (HC, 7.99) Mar.

Parks, Brad. The Last Act (Dut, 9.99) Mar.

Patterson, James and James O. Born. Ambush (LB, 9.99) Feb.

Patterson, James and Candice Fox. Liar, Liar (LB, 9.99) Feb.

Perkins, S.C. Murder Once Removed (STM, 7.99) Feb.

Preston, Douglas and Lincoln Child. Verses for the Dead (LB, 9.99) Dec.

Ryan, Annelise. Dead of Winter (Ken, 7.99) Feb.

Shelton, Paige. The Loch Ness Papers (STM, 7.99) Mar.

Souza, Joseph. Pray for the Girl (Ken, 9.99) Mar.

Woods, Stuart. Turbulence (Put, 9.99) Mar.

New and Forthcoming in Paperback Original

Brecher, Christin. Murder Makes Scents (Ken, 7.99) Mar. In the second in the series featuring a candle-shop owner on Nantucket, Stella returns home from a perfume industry conference in Paris with her mother, when she receives a threatening anonymous note accusing her mother of stealing a perfume formula, and she realizes that things could get wicked indeed.

Buckley, Julia. Death with a Dark Red Rose (Brk, 7.99) Mar. Apprentice writer Lena must take her nose out of a book in order to hunt for her friend who has disappeared from her house leaving behind her purse, her phone, and a red rose.

Cahoon, Lynn. A Field Guide to Homicide (Ken, 7.99) Feb. Colorado b&b owner Cat Latimer takes her writing retreat group on a hike to identify the local flora and fauna, but when they find the body of a man with a gold claim nearby, they must find the killer before he takes a hike.

Cameron, Marc. Open Carry (Ken, 9.99) Mar. A U.S. Marshall is sent from Florida to Alaska to investigate when three people disappear including two crew members on a reality TV show in the first of a new thriller series.

Chien, Vivien. Egg Drop Dead (STM, 7.99) Mar. Lana Lee is hired to cater a dinner at the home of a wealthy woman, but when the nanny is found dead the day after the party, she is asked to investigate by the woman who fears that she was the intended victim in the latest in this tasty series set in a Chinese restaurant.

Cole, Stephanie. Al Dente’s Inferno (Brk, 7.99) Mar. In the first of a new series, an American chef accepts a job in Italy to turn a crumbling villa into a farm-to-table cooking school, but when a tourist is found dead on the opening night, she must throw her chef’s hat down to solve a murder.

Collins, Kate. Statue of Limitations (Ken, 7.99) Feb. When a woman returns to coastal Michigan following her divorce to work in her Greek family’s garden center, she discovers that the death of the family patriarch might be related to a shady developer’s plans to raze the “Greek village” and build a condo in the first of a new series.

DiRico, Maria. Here Comes the Body (Ken, 7.99) Mar. In the first of a new series, a recently-divorced woman returns home to work for her father’s catering business in Queens, but a bachelor party turns ugly when a dead body tumbles out of the cake, and before she knows it, she’s trying to keep her father out of Riker’s Island. DiRico also writes as Ellen Byron.

Eaton, J.C. Dressed up 4 Murder (Ken, 7.99) Mar. Phee must help her mother who fears she may be the next victim when two competitors in the Precious Pooches costume event are poisoned by toxic sago palm leaves, a competition in which her little dog Streetman is an active participant. TFOB.

Griffin, J.M. Who’s Dead, Doc (Ken, 7.99) Mar. Jules and her telepathic rabbit Bun are at a birthday party when one of the guests is murdered, and the local sheriff asks her to go undercover as a judge at the local rabbit show by taking the victim’s place in a case that reveals the dark, furry underbelly of rabbit competition.

Kashian, Tina. On the Lamb (Ken, 7.99) Mar. Restaurant manager Lucy must help her friend when a local landlord is found dead after eating some taffy from her friend’s sweet shop.

McKinlay, Jenn. Buried to the Brim (Brk, 7.99) Feb. London milliners Scarlett and her aunt Vivian are making matching hats for a friend and her prize-winning corgi for a posh charity dog show, but the murder of a vendor forces them to turn their skills to collaring a killer.

Ryan, Sofie. Claw Enforcement (Brk, 7.99) Feb. Sarah and her feline ally Elvis get to see if their sleuthing skills are up to scratch when a local man is found dead after a contentious town meeting with a property developer.

Weiss, Kirsten. Pies before Guys (Ken, 7.99) Mar. At a poetry slam at the Pie Town bakery, a professor is found murdered, right after he was accused of plagiarism, so Val and Charlene decide to investigate because they realize that if they don’t pinch the killer soon, the bakery’s reputation could crumble.

New and Forthcoming in Quality Paperback

Acampora, Lauren. Paper Wasp (Grove, 16.00) Mar. When her high-school friend finds success in Hollywood, a woman with artistic gifts and an almost obsessive interest in a cult director moves to Hollywood and the dark friendship and twisted ambition of the two women leads to tragedy in a debut that will remind you of Patricia Highsmith.

Armstrong, Ross. The Woman in Apartment 49 (Mira, 16.99) Feb. A birdwatcher who lives in an area of town that is being gentrified becomes intrigued when she sees something odd at a neighboring housing estate scheduled for demolition, and when her elderly neighbor is found dead, she decides to investigate in a twistily-plotted mystery with an unreliable narrator.

Ashley, Mike, ed. Fighters of Fear: Occult Detective Stories (Talos, 18.99) Feb. A collection of short stories featuring psychic detectives from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, many long unavailable.

Banks, Leo. Champagne Cowboys (Brash, 17.99) Mar. In the excellent second in this Tucson series, former baseball player Whip Stark finds himself involved in an investigation when a man who claims he has information on the robbery that left two of his friends dead is himself found dead in his ransacked mansion. Banks gets Tucson right. Signing.

Barton, Fiona. The Suspect (Brk, 16.00) Jan. A journalist is pleased to be assigned the story of two British teenagers who went missing after a fire in a Bangkok hostel because she wants to reunite with her estranged son who is working in Thailand, but she is horrified to discover that he is the main suspect in the investigation.

Benedict, Laura. The Stranger Inside (LB, 15.99) Feb. A woman returns home to find her house has been rented to a man who later has her jailed for assault, and she comes to believe that he is blaming her for the death of her sister in a twistily-plotted novel told by the epitome of an unreliable narrator.

Bohnhoff, Maya Kaathryn. The Antiquities Hunter (Peg, 15.95) Feb. In the first of a new series a San Francisco PI teams up with an archaeologist when her friend is shot during her work as a National Parks Service operative, in a case that takes them to Mexico and the world of powerful antiquities traffickers.

Boice, James. Who Killed the Fonz (SS, 16.00) Feb. In a reinvention of the classic television series Happy Days with a noir twist, now an adult, Richie returns home when he hears that his friend Fonzie has died in a motorcycle accident—or was it murder? Richie and his friends decide to investigate.

Burke, Alafair. The Better Sister (HC, 16.99) Mar. When a prominent Manhattan attorney is murdered, two estranged sisters—one his widow, and one his ex-wife—reunite after police focus on their son and stepson as the main suspect in a novel of dark family secrets, lies, and betrayal.

Carr, John Dickson. It Walks by Night (PP, 14.99) Mar. The classic author’s first mystery novel is a locked-room mystery set in Paris.

Chesterton, G.K. The Incredulity of Father Brown (SS, 5.99) Feb. A volume of classic crime stories featuring a Roman Catholic priest in a small English town in the early twentieth century.

Chow, Jennifer J. Mimi Lee Gets a Clue (Brk, 16.00) Mar. When she opens a pet grooming salon in a beach town near L.A., a woman receives a Persian cat as a store-opening present, not realizing that the cat has special communication powers that help tremendously when she investigates a puppy mill owner’s death to save herself from becoming the chief suspect in the first of a cozy new series.

Coates, Darcy. The Haunting of Ashburn House (PP, 14.99) Mar. After a woman inherits a crumbling old mansion, she begins to realize the stories about the ghosts that roam the house may be true in a novel of horror.

_____. Voices in the Snow (PP, 14.99) Jan. In the first of a new paranormal series a woman who is stranded by a blizzard takes refuge in an old house, and while the owner is kind, she gets the feeling that there is something waiting outside—something hungry.

Cole, Daniel. Hangman (HC, 17.99) Feb. A detective joins a joint FBI/CIA/UK law-enforcement task force in New York and the first case is that of a body hanging from the Brooklyn Bridge, soon followed by others on both sides of the Atlantic.

Coulter, Catherine. Labyrinth (SS, 16.99) Feb. FBI agents Savich and Sherlock stumble into the most bizarre case of their careers.

Crais, Robert. A Dangerous Man (Put, 17.00) Feb. When Pike rescues a young bank teller from two men trying to abduct her, he and Elvis Cole become involved in a twisted murder case when the two men are later found murdered and the young woman disappears.

Crouch, Blake. Recursion (RH, 17.00) Mar. The development of a new technology to preserve intense memories and relive them may have the unintended consequence of creating a “false memory syndrome,” where people have intense memories of a life they never lived, and a man who witnesses a suicide caused by the syndrome begins investigating. Crouch is a favorite of mine because he combines science and suspense so well. TFOB.

Daugherty, Christi. A Beautiful Corpse (STM, 17.99) Feb. Savannah reporter Harper McClain investigates the murder of a law student and bartender in a case that has explosive political ramifications when she discovers that the woman had been stalked by the scion of a powerful family. I love this series.

Dietrich, Karen. Girl at the Edge (GC, 15.99) Mar. A teenaged girl fights with her dark impulses, trying to be different from her father, a violent criminal on death row in a novel of psychological suspense.

Dow, David R. Confessions of an Innocent Man (Dut, 16.00) Mar. In a suspenseful and emotionally powerful debut, a Houston man who is convicted of the murder of his wife is exonerated at the ultimate hour before his execution when DNA evidence is discovered, but his life has been ruined and he vows to exact revenge on those who have destroyed him. Texas has the highest number of executions of any state and many of the convictions have been obtained through the intentional misuse of forensic science.

Downing, Samantha. My Lovely Wife (Brk, 16.00) Mar. A wickedly satisfying debut thriller about a suburban couple whose marriage gets a little too interesting when they realize that they must find a way to get away with murder. Delightfully creepy.

Dugoni, Robert. A Cold Truth (T&M, 15.95) Feb. Seattle homicide detective Tracy Crosswhite and her attorney husband return to the town where they grew up where he is working on a complex case against the mayor and a group of developers and she becomes involved in a fatal arson case that caused the death of a reporter working on a twenty-five year old cold case of a murdered teenager.

Dupuis, JJ. Roanoke Ridge (PGW, 15.99) Mar. When her mentor goes missing while researching Bigfoot sightings in the woods of Oregon, a scientist and avowed skeptic goes to search for him, but when she finds the body of another man, she realizes that something sinister is going on in the first of a new cryptozoological series.

Edwards, Martin, ed. Measure of Malice (PP, 14.99) Feb. Classic mystery stories with the theme of scientific deduction.

Ferencik, Erica. The Jungle (SS, 16.99) Mar. A woman accepts a job teaching English in Bolivia, but when the job falls through, she joins a hunter from the jungles to track down the jaguar who killed his nephew in a suspenseful adventure story of the kind that used to feature only male characters. Great fun.

Fforde, Jasper. Early Riser (Vik, 17.00) Feb. A standalone novel set in a world where the human population hibernates during the winter, and an investigator with a group responsible for the safety of the sleeping masses must find the reason for a series of viral dreams that start killing people. Fforde is a delight.

Fiegel, Michael. Blackbird (Arcade, 16.99) Mar. A killer-for-hire happens upon a young girl who suffers from his own feeling of “otherness,” so he takes her under his wing and teaches her the only thing he knows—killing without getting caught.

Foley, Lucy. The Hunting Party (HC, 16.99) Mar. A group of friends from Oxford gather together at an isolated estate in Scotland for a New Year’s celebration a decade after graduation, but a blizzard cuts them off from the outside world, and soon one of them is dead—and one of them is a murderer.

Goodman, Carol. The Sea of Lost Girls (HC, 16.99) Mar. The wife of a respected professor at an elite boarding school finds her family besieged when her son is implicated in the death of a female student, and as she investigates she discovers that this is not the first such incident in the school’s history.

Graves, Sarah. Death by Chocolate Malted Milkshake (Ken, 15.95) Feb. The Chocolate Moose has been hired to make the wedding cake for the nuptials of the local kindergarten teacher and a Coast Guard captain, but when the bride’s bitter ex-boyfriend is murdered, both bride and groom end up in jail, and it’s up to Jake and Ellie to catch a poisoner.

Harmel, Kristen. The Winemaker’s Wife (SS, 28.00) Aug. After she has lost everything in her life, a New York woman is whisked off to France by her eccentric grandmother, who must share a tragic story going back to the early days of WWII in the winemaking country of northern France, and in revealing the past, helps her granddaughter realize her future.

Havill, Steven F. Less than a Moment (PP, 15.99) Mar. The Posadas County Sheriff’s Department investigates the late-night drive-by shooting at the local newspaper office that leaves two journalists wounded.

Heller, Peter. The River (Vin, 16.00) Mar. Two college students on a whitewater canoeing trip in northern Canada are caught when a wildfire works its way north through the forest, but when they hear a couple arguing and later they see a single man canoeing by their camp, they realize that they have to contend with human violence as well as nature’s fury.

Hepworth, Sally. The Mother-in-Law (STM, 16.99) Mar. When her mother-in-law dies leaving a suicide note, a woman seems unsurprised when an autopsy shows signs of poison and evidence of suffocation, but who would want to murder a polite and generous woman known for her work in the community and her perfect marriage?

Herron, Mick. Joe Country (Soho, 16.95) Mer. In the latest Slough House mystery, one of the “slow horses” is asked by the widow of a colleague to find her missing teenaged son, an investigation that soon turns into a deadly game of blackmail, treachery, and skullduggery in the freezing Welsh countryside. I absolutely love this series—it’s smart, funny, and with an ensemble cast of convincing characters.

Hunt, Amber and Emily G. Thompson. Unsolved Murders (Png, 14.99) Feb. A collection of some of the most infamous unsolved cases of the twentieth and twenty-first century, complete with details and clues, biographies of the victims, psychology of killers—everything one needs to try to solve the mystery. Have at it!

Jakeman, Jane. Safe House (Brk, 16.00) Mar. A woman newly released from prison for giving her murderer ex a false alibi moves to a seaside village to start her life over and realizes that her past has found her when one of her new friends disappears in a novel of suspense.

Karpov, Max. The Children’s Game (SS, 16.99) Mar. In a very timely, well-researched thriller, a former CIA agent who specialized in Russian oligarchs is called in when it becomes clear that Russia is launching a cyberattack against the U.S. using misinformation and Internet trolls to manipulate public opinion. My personal opinion is that WWIII occurred in 2016 and Russia won.

Kenneth, TR. A Room Full of Night (Per, 16.00) Mar. A burnt-out journalist helping a friend move finds a piece of cloth with a plea for help and an address in Berlin behind an oil painting, so they investigate and find a sealed apartment that has not been lived in since 1942, but the investigation unleashes a nefarious plot involving remnants of the Third Reich.

Kent, Christobel. What We Did (FSG, 18.00) Feb. When the violin teacher who sexually assaulted her twenty years before walks into her boutique with his newest “protégé,” a woman is unsure what to do--and then the man goes missing in an insightful psychological thriller.

Knight, Renee. The Secretary (HC, 16.99) Feb. A creepy psychological thriller about the personal secretary to the head of a London-based supermarket chain who has given up her personal life for her ambitious boss, and who arranges a chilling comeuppance after a bitter betrayal.

Korelitz, Jean Hanff. The Undoing (GC, 16.99) A re-release of a novel of domestic suspense about a therapist who argues that woman should know about the men in their lives only to discover that she knows nothing about her own husband. I really liked this.

Koryta, Michael. If She Wakes (Hach, 17.99) Mar. After a college student is left in a locked-in state after a car accident, an insurance investigator realizes that the crash was no accident, a realization that puts both women in danger from a mysterious young hitman.

Lang, Essie. Trouble on the Books (Per, 16.99) Feb. In the first of a new series set in a mystery bookshop, a former book editor turns bookseller when she returns to her upstate New York hometown, but the murder of the volunteer coordinator at the tourist attraction where the bookstore is located causes her to investigate with the help of a hunky Coast Guard investigator.

Lapidos, Juliet. Talent (LB, 15.99) Mar. A graduate student writing a dissertation on inspiration has the chance to look at the papers of a novelist famous for having written three brilliant novels as a young man and then nothing, and when she discovers that he was working on something new at the time of his death, she becomes fascinated—and enmeshed in the criminal plans of his literary executor in a clever and funny debut.

Lawson, Mike. House Arrest (Per, 16.00) Feb. Political fixer Joe DeMarco is accused by the FBI of murdering the House Majority Whip, so he calls in a former DIA agent friend to investigate while he awaits trial in jail, and she finds a connection to the ruthless CEO of a large corporation, who had a very personal motive for murder.

Lee, R.J. Playing the Devil (Ken, 15.95) Feb. In the second in this cozy series set in small-town Mississippi, reporter and bridge player Wendy Winchester investigates when the loutish husband of one the members of her bridge group is found murdered in the hot-tub at the country club.

Malone, Michael J. In the Absence of Miracles (IPG, 15.95) Mar. While packing up his mother’s possessions after her stroke, a man uncovers a trove of photos and documents relating to his older brother—a brother he never knew he had in a novel of psychological suspense.

Mason, Jamie. The Hidden Things (SS, 16.99) Mar. A security camera captures a teenaged girl fighting off an intruder in her suburban home, and also reveals a glimpse of a seventeenth-century Dutch masterpiece that was stolen from a museum years before in a thriller based on the real-life theft of paintings from a Boston museum in 1990. I loved this.

McDonald, Christina. Behind Every Lie (SS, 16.00) Feb. A woman awakens in the hospital, having been struck by lightning, to learn that her mother has been murdered, and investigating she realizes that her mother kept secrets, very dangerous secrets, which sends her to London where her mother used to live to find answers.

McMahon, John. The Good Detective (Put, 17.00) Feb. A police detective in a Georgia town beset by demons since the death of his wife and child fears that he may have killed the chief suspect in the murder of a black teenager, but further investigation reveals that the death may be part of a conspiracy going back to the time of the Civil War. TFOB.

Meade, Amy Patricia. Cookin’ the Books (SH, 17.95) Dec. A former banker who moves to a small Virginia town to open a “literary” café is hired to cater a fundraiser for the local library, but when the executive director is murdered, she must find a killer among a group of suspects that seems to include everyone in town in a debut cozy.

Moor, Jessica. The Keeper (Png, 16.00) Mar. A debut mystery set in rural England where two homicide detectives investigate the apparent suicide of a woman who worked in a shelter for victims of domestic violence.

O’Cinneide, C.S. The Starr Sting Scale (PGW, 17.99) Mar. A retired hit-woman is hired by a wealthy woman to dispose of her teenaged daughter’s unpleasant boyfriend, but the teenager is found dead and the hit-woman must help the police solve the murder—a murder she may have committed in the first of a new series.

Osman, Mat. The Ruins (RH, 18.95) Feb. A London man whose twin brother was recently gunned down finds that he must leave his comfortable solitary existence to find what happened and let his brother’s family into his life, but he discovers a world of deceit, forgery, and violence that he never knew existed.

Palmer, D.J. Saving Meghan (STM, 16.99) Feb. When their daughter develops a serious illness that the doctors cannot diagnose, her family turns to an expert on a rare mitochondrial disease, but before he begins treating her, the mother is accused of deliberately making her daughter sick—known as Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy.

Panowich, Brian. Like Lions (STM, 16.99) Mar. A Georgia sheriff is also the heir to a notorious backwoods crime family, and when a rival criminal organization seeks to take over the crime enterprise, leaving a trail of bodies in its wake, he must decide how he will respond to protect himself and his family.

Patrick, Phaedra. The Library of Lost and Found (HC, 16.99) Feb. A lonely librarian finds a book of fairy tales that is dedicated to her by her beloved, deceased grandmother, setting her on a quest to uncover a family secret and changing her life.

Pavone, Chris. The Paris Diversion (RH, 17.00) Feb. Intelligence agent Kate Moore, assigned to Paris, must partner with a French agent when a suicide bomber threatens the Louvre and a tech CEO goes missing, and she soon realizes that the attack might be related to her own past.

Perry, Sarah. After Me Comes the Flood (HC, 16.99) Mar. When his car breaks down on a backroad, a London bookseller is greeted by a woman who seems to know him, and when she takes him into her dilapidated house, her guests also know him and act as if they were waiting for him—but why?--in a psychologically complex tale of obsession and determination.

Pinter, Jason. Hide Away (T&M, 15.95) Mar. A recent widow in a small Midwestern town suspects that the town’s mayor, an apparent suicide was actually murdered, and insinuates herself into the police investigation in the first of a suspenseful, character-driven series.

Preston, Lisa. The Clincher (Per, 15.99) Feb. The first of a new cozy series featuring a farrier (horseshoer) in a small Oregon ranching town who becomes a suspect when one of her clients is found murdered and turns sleuth to clear her name. This is a stellar debut with a compelling protagonist, interesting horse lore, and a nicely twisty plot. TFOB. Signing.

Rader-Day, Lori. The Lucky One (HC, 16.99) Feb. A woman who was kidnapped as a child works reuniting families with missing loved ones, and one day she happens across a photo of the man who kidnapped her, so she and a friend decide to find him and stop him, putting themselves in danger.

Rosenstiel, Tom. The Good Lie (HC, 16.99) Feb. An international political thriller featuring a political fixer who is asked by the president to investigate the bombing of a clandestine American military base in North Africa, an investigation that becomes a political hot potato for all involved. TFOB.

Savage, Vanessa. The Woman in the Dark (GC, 15.99) Mar. In a debut psychological thriller, a woman and her family move to a gothic seaside house where her husband grew up, but she soon learns that a family was brutally murdered there fifteen years earlier—and then creepy things begin to happen….

Schneider, Joseph. One Day You’ll Burn (PP, 15.99) Feb. In the first of a new series an Iranian-American rookie cop in Los Angeles investigates the murder of an unidentified man whose burned corpse is strangely posed in front of a pagoda in a Thai shopping complex.

Strawser, Jessica. Forget You Know Me (STM, 16.99) Mar. A woman whose life is a mess fears that she is being stalked by someone, and the possibilities range from a neighbor with whom she’s having an affair, a shady loan company, or an unscrupulous colleague of her husband in a powerful thriller.

St. Vincent, Sarah. Ways to Hide in Winter (RH, 17.99) Feb. A woman who has retreated from life to work in a state park in Pennsylvania’s Blue Ridge Mountains befriends a stranger who claims to be a student from Uzbekistan, but he seems to be terrified in a story of violence and redemption, betrayal and empathy.

Swanson, Peter. Before She Knew Him (HC, 16.99) Feb. When she and her husband move to a town outside of Boston, a woman with a history of bipolar disorder finds herself becoming obsessed with their neighbor, believing that he is somehow involved with the unsolved murder of a young man, but she can’t be sure that her obsession isn’t part of her illness—until she realizes that he knows she knows. I loved this.

Swinson, David. Trigger (Mull, 16.99) Feb. Former D.C. cop Frank Marr, now a PI, is asked by an old friend from his police days to help him beat a charge of killing an unarmed civilian, but the case plunges Frank into the world of dirty cops and suspicious drug busts that led to his problems years before. I really like this series.

Webb, Betty. Desert Redemption (PP, 15.95) Mar. Scottsdale PI Lena Jones investigates a religious compound promoting a mishmash of Native American symbolism and philosophy, and when a body is found in the desert, she sees a link to the center and later a link to the mystery of her own life in the final book in the series. Signing.

_____. The Panda of Death (PP, 15.95) Mar. Zookeeper Teddy is welcoming the zoo’s new red panda when she is called upon by her new mother-in-law to welcome a newcomer to the family, an eighteen-year-old son of her husband, who arrives to meet his family—and is promptly arrested for murder. Signing.

Weinberger, Andy. An Old Man’s Game (Con, 16.00) Feb. In the first of a new series, an aging Jewish PI in Los Angeles investigates when an Orthodox rabbi dies during a meal at a deli in a case that may hinge on a translation of the Hebrew Bible.

Westlake, Donald. Double Feature (Hard Case, 10.95) Feb. Two classic novellas set in Hollywood—and made into movies—by the master.

White, Susan Rebecca. We Are All Good People Here (SS, 16.99) Mar. Two young women who become friends in college during the 1960s respond to the social upheavals of the time in different ways—and one becomes radicalized and must seek help from the other to leave her violent past behind, but doing so endangers both their children years later.

Winslow, Don. The Border (HC, 19.99) Feb. The conclusion to the Cartel trilogy finds Art Keller highly-placed in the ranks of the DEA, but no closer to stemming the tide of drugs coming from across the border, and to his horror, he discovers that the incoming administration is in bed with the very cartels he is trying to take down. TFOB.

New and Forthcoming in International Mysteries

Adiga, Aravind. Amnesty (SS, 26.00) Feb. An undocumented immigrant in Sydney has evidence about a murder and must decide whether to come forward, knowing that in doing so he would be deported. This is a thought-provoking and very timely look at a pressing political problem.

Adler-Olsen, Jussi. Victim 2117 (Dut, 28.00) Mar. The investigation of the apparent drowning of a refugee woman brings back memories of his times in Syria and Afghanistan for Assad, a member of Copenhagen’s Department Q.

Akunin, Boris. The Coronation (Per, 16.00) Mar. In the latest in the historical mystery series by a best-selling Russian writer, private enquiry agent Fandorin must help a Grand Duke, in Moscow for the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II, when his young son is kidnapped and the kidnappers demand the handover of a fabulous diamond set on the handle of the royal scepter.

_____. She Lover of Death (PGW, 26.00) Mar. Fandorin goes undercover after a series of suicides among a group of poets obsessed with death reveals the existence of a manipulative murderer in the latest of the series set in early-twentieth-century Russia.

Bannelec, Jean-Luc. The Killing Tide (STM, 25.99) Feb. Commisaire Georges Dupin investigates when a fisherwoman is found with her throat slit, the first of three bodies found this way in a case that sends him on a pursuit of a killer across the islands off the coast of Brittany.

Black, Cara. Murder in Bel-Air (Soho, 16.95) Feb. When her mother disappears Paris PI Aimée LeDuc discovers that the last person she talked to has been found murdered with a large amount of money in her possession in a case involving post-colonial Franco-African politics.

Camilleri, Andrea. The Safety Net (Png, 16.00) Mar. When a group of armed men threaten a middle school in Vigata, Inspector Montalbano must learn to use social media to investigate the students. The author died in 2019, but fortunately for his readers he left finished manuscripts, including the ending of the series.

Carlotto, Massimo. Blues for Outlaw Hearts and Old Whores (Europa, 17.00) Feb. The Italian police detectives led by Marco Buratti find themselves framed by a notorious criminal who decides to turn states’ evidence in a Mediterranean noir about international corruption and drug trafficking.

Chan, Ho-Kei. Second Sister (Black Cat, 17.00) Feb. After her teenaged sister commits suicide, a woman discovers that the girl had been the victim of a sexual abuser, and later the victim of a campaign of cyberbullying and harassment, so she hires a PI to investigate in a twisty thriller set in Hong Kong.

Chung, Maxine Mei-Fung. The Eighth Girl (HC, 27.99) Mar. A debut that alternates between two very unreliable narrators: a woman with multiple personalities and her new psychiatrist, who agrees to help a friend find evidence against her employer whom she suspects of trafficking young women through his London “gentleman’s club.”

Criaco, Gioacchino. Black Souls (Soho, 16.95) Feb. A standalone crime novel set in a small village of Calabria, home of the crime family ‘Ndrangheta, focused on three young men who decide to improve their lot in life by joining the mob in a morality tale of how violence begets more violence, steeped in brigand lore, mountain mythology, and peasant beliefs.

Cumming, Charles. The Moroccan Girl (STM, 17.99) Feb. A thriller writer is persuaded to spy for the UK in Morocco where he is going for a literary event; in particular, he is asked to find a woman involved with the leader of a revolutionary group fighting against the present regime in Russia.

Elo, Elisabeth. Finding Katerina M. (Per, 16.95) Feb. An American doctor who thought that her Ukrainian grandparents died in a Stalinist labor camp is surprised to discover that her grandmother is still alive and living in Siberia, but she also discovers that her grandmother is in danger from the regime of Vladimir Putin when she goes to visit her in Siberia, and finds that helping her grandmother might mean betraying her country.

Escobar, Melba. House of Beauty (HC, 15.99) Feb. A talented beautician at an elegant salon in Bogota, Colombia learns all her clients’ secrets while making them beautiful, and wonders how to solve her own money problems, but when she becomes involved in the death of a teenaged girl, her life becomes exceedingly dangerous in an international bestseller.

Ferrari, K. Like Flies from Afar (FSG, 25.00) Mar. An Argentine oligarch who has thrived by collaborating with the worst elements of society must save himself from being framed for murder when he discovers an unidentified body in the trunk of his car.

Fox, Candice. Gone by Midnight (STM, 27.99) Mar. Queensland PI Ted Conkaffey is asked to investigate the disappearance of a young boy from his hotel room by his parents despite the fact that the local police are reluctant to work with him.

_____. Redemption Point (STM, 9.99) Feb. A PI in Queensland must join forces with another when the father of an abducted teenager decides on revenge and his only hope of survival is to find the girl himself.

Goenawan, Clarissa. The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida (Soho, 26.00) Mar. The unexpected suicide of a Tokyo student leads her friends to read through her letters and diary entries to understand why she would do such a thing in a touching and tragic story about a complicated woman. Highly recommended

Grant, Michael. A Sudden Death in Cypress (IPS, 14.00) Feb. In the first of a new series, a burglar who has been a fugitive since jumping bail almost twenty years before comes across the body of a woman at a beach resort in Cypress, and is talked into helping find the murderer by two FBI agents unofficially investigating.

Gustawsson, Johana. Blood Song (IPG, 15.95) Mar. When a wealthy family is murdered in Sweden the case is taken up by their daughter, a UK police detective, and a Swedish profiler who discover that the killer has committed a long string of murders in a case that has its roots in the Spanish Civil War.

Hall, Tarquin. The Case of the Reincarnated Client (SH, 28.99) Feb. Delhi PI Vish Puri returns to take a case at the urging of his mother, who wants him to investigate the disappearance of a woman during the anti-Sikh riots in 1984, although he is worried about a lawsuit by a former client who blames him for not uncovering his new son-in-law’s thunderous snoring problem during a pre-wedding investigation.

Hamilton, Ian. Foresight (PGW, 15.95) Feb. Triad leader Uncle Chow Tung must figure out how to turn the modernization of the Chinese economy under the regime of Chairman Deng to the advantage of his gang.

Harper, Jane. The Lost Man (STM, 16.99) Jan. A standalone mystery set in the Australian outback where a cattle rancher investigates the death of his brother, whose desiccated corpse is found in the shadow of a headstone known as the stockman’s grave.

Henaff, Sophie. Stick Together (MacLehose, 16.99) Mar. Paris police commissaire Anne Capestan and her department investigate the murder of a former police officer and find a link to a bank robbery in Lyon in 1992 in the second in this excellent, very funny series.

Hye-young, Pyun. City of Ash and Red (Arcade, 16.99) Mar. An exterminator is send to a foreign city beset by a rat problem in the midst of a pandemic, but he is incarcerated in a quarantine area and must find help in a city where he knows no one, in a city where society is breaking down in a dystopian novel by a rising Korean star.

James, Marlon. Black Leopard, Red Wolf (Riverhead, 18.00) Feb. In the first of a trilogy inspired by African mythology that combines, history, fantasy, adventure, and suspense, a mercenary is hired to find a mysterious boy, missing for three years, and is joined in his quest by others also seeking the boy including a shape-shifting man-animal known as the Leopard.

Jameson, Hanna. The Last (SS, 17.00) Feb. A post-apocalyptic murder mystery set in a Swiss hotel after a nuclear war, where the twenty survivors must find a murderer among them when the body of a young girl is found outside the hotel.

Kent, Serena. Death in Avignon (HC, 16.99) Mar. When a controversial ex-pat painter dies at a glamorous art gallery opening, Penelope Kite investigates in a case filled with patisserie to die for, shady art dealers, and gorgeous countryside.

_____. Death in Provence (HC, 16.99) Feb. When a divorcée retires from her job in forensics with the Home Office in England, she moves to a farmhouse in the sleepy Provençal village of St. Merlot, but after she finds a body floating in her swimming pool, she must discover the secrets and intrigues of her new home in the first of a new series. I loved this.

Keplar, Lars. The Stalker (Knopf, 16.95) Feb. After the Swedish police receive a video of a woman in her home, clearly unaware that she is being filmed, and then find her mutilated body, they call in detective Joona Linna to help find the killer, in a case that becomes more urgent when a second video is received.

Leon, Donna. Trace Elements (IPS, 27.00) Mar. A dying woman’s cryptic words in a hospice sends Brunetti on a quest to uncover a threat to the entire area around Venice.

_____. Unto Us a Son is Given (Per, 16.00) Mar. Brunetti’s father-in-law asks him to investigate when his elderly friend decides to adopt a young man, ensuring that he will inherit all of his wealth, but after the friend dies and a woman in Venice for the funeral is murdered Brunetti must solve the mystery of the friend’s life to find a killer.

May, Peter. A Silent Death (Quer, 26.99) Mar. After his girlfriend is killed by a Spanish policewoman, a fugitive Scottish ex-pat vows vengeance against the woman, but the Spanish police enlist the help of an investigator from Glasgow to stop him.

McCall Smith, Alexander. The Department of Sensitive Crimes (RH, 16.00) Feb. The first of a new series about a Swedish police department tasked with investigating unusual crimes, including the case of a man stabbed in the back of the knee.

Michaud, Martin. Never Forget (PGW, 16.99) Feb. In the first of a new police procedural series, and the first of the author’s mysteries in English, a Montreal police detective and his partner investigate the death of a homeless man who had two wallets in his possession—one belonging to a murder victim and the other to a powerful lawyer who vanished in a case that takes on serious political overtones.

Morchio, Bruno. The German Client (Kazabo, 14.99) Feb. The English-language debut of an Italian crime writer featuring a Genoa PI who is hired by a German man to find his half-brother in a mystery that has its roots in WWII and the dangers facing the Italian Resistance movement.

Moreno-Garcia, Silvia. Untamed Shore (Agora, 25.99) Feb. A young woman in Baja California who dreams of leaving her small village takes a job with a wealthy American, but when the man dies in a fall, she lies to protect his trophy wife and her brother only to find herself the suspect in his murder.

Onda, Riku. The Aosawa Murders (Con, 14.95) Feb. At a dinner party hosted by a prominent family, seventeen people die from cyanide in their drinks, and it is only years later that the truth comes out in a prize-winning Japanese mystery.

Pomare, JP. Call Me Evie (Put, 17.00) Feb. A twisty debut novel of suspense about a teenaged girl who finds herself held captive by a man who claims he is saving her from the consequences of something terrible she did back home in Melbourne—something that she cannot remember at all.

Seo, Mi-Ae. The Only Child (HC, 26.99) Feb. A psychological thriller set in South Korea about a criminal psychologist and the convicted serial killer who grants her an exclusive interview, and whose psychopathic behavior and attitudes remind her of those of her stepdaughter.

Sigurdardottir, Yrsa. The Absolution (STM, 28.99) Feb. A child psychologist joins forces with a Reykjavik police detective to hunt for a serial killer whose victims are adolescent cyberbullies.

Simenon, Georges. Maigret in Vichy (Png, 15.00) Feb. A reissue of an early Inspector Maigret mystery. Coming in March will be Maigret’s Childhood Friend (Png, 15.00).

Szymiczkowa, Maryla. Mrs. Mohr Goes Missing (HMH, 15.99) Mar. Set in Cracow in 1898, a bored society woman becomes an amateur sleuth when a woman dies mysteriously in a nursing home catering to wealthy patients in a comic debut with a slight paranormal tinge.

Tuti, Ilaria. Flowers over the Inferno (Soho, 16.95) Mar. In a debut set in the Italian Alps a police detective who is an expert in criminal profiling is called in when a man is found naked with his eyes gouged out, and while dealing with her own age and health issues, she comes to realize that the remote community is a place of dark secrets and eerie folk beliefs.

Würger, Takis. The Club (Per, 16.00) Feb. A German orphan goes to live in England with his aunt who teaches at Cambridge, and she offers to help with his education if he will help her investigate an exclusive club filled with aristocrats and wealthy socialites. I really liked this and read it in one night.

New and Forthcoming in Historical Mysteries

Abriel, Anita. The Light after the War (SS, 27.00) Feb. Two friends escape from the train carrying them to Auschwitz and survive WWII, but their postwar lives are even more complicated in a novel of loss, love, and friendship set in Naples and Caracas, based on the life story of the author’s mother.

Alexander, Kirsten. Lost Boy Found (GC, 16.99) Mar. A debut novel based on the real-life case of a two-year-old boy who disappeared and was found two years later in Louisiana in 1913, but his wealthy family must go to court when another woman claims that the child is hers.

Bolton, Guy. The Syndicate (Per, 16.95) Feb. In the second in this series that recreates Hollywood in the 1940s, PI Jonathan Craine is abducted from his home with his son by thugs and flown to Las Vegas where Meyer Lansky orders him to investigate a crime or his son will be killed.

Brittney, Lynn. A Death in Chelsea (CL, 26.99) Mar. In the second in this series set in London in 1915, the special secret team of policemen and women amateur detectives investigate when a young aristocrat is found hanged in her bedroom, and her mother insists that she would never have committed suicide. For fans of Maisie Dobbs and Bess Crawford.

Chiaverini, Jennifer. Resistance Women (HC, 17.99) Feb. An American woman who marries a German economist returns to Berlin with him in the 1930s, but the rise of Nazism finds her and other female friends resisting the repressive regime by working from within to destroy it at the risk of their own lives in a novel based on real events.

Collins, Max Allan. Do No Harm (STM, 27.99) Mar. PI Nate Heller gets involved in the Sam Sheppard murder case, where a doctor is accused of murdering his wife in 1954, after Erle Stanley Gardner asks him to reassess the case, leading to a creative solution to the notorious mystery.

Cutler, Judith. The Wages of Sin (SH, 28.99) Feb. In the first of a new series set on a Shropshire country estate in Victorian England, the estate manager and the housekeeper join forces to investigate when the carriage of the lord of the manor is found wrecked and a housemaid is missing.

Dawson, Kate Winkler. American Sherlock (Put, 27.00) Feb. The story of America’s first forensic scientist who in the 1930s developed the tools that police and investigators use today. TFOB

Doherty, Paul. Dark Queen Waiting (SH, 28.99) Feb. Countess Margaret Beaufort, the mother of the future Henry VII, must discover if there is a traitor among her loyal followers when a series of mysterious deaths occur in a mystery set during the War of the Roses.

Eliasberg, Jan. Hannah’s War (LB, 16.99) Mar. A Jewish physicist flees Germany in 1938 and in 1945 is working on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, when she becomes the primary suspect when someone is discovered sending messages to Hitler’s scientists in Germany in a suspenseful mystery based on the life of physicist Lise Meitner.

Finch, Charles. The Last Passenger (STM, 27.99) Feb. Aristocratic sleuth Charles Lennox investigates the murder of an unidentified man whose body is found by the conductor when the train arrives at Paddington Station. TFOB.

Fredericks, Mariah. Death of a New American (STM, 17.99) Mar. Ladies maid Jane Prescott travels to Long Island where her mistress is planning the wedding of her daughter to the son of a prominent family the head of which is famous for his prosecution of the Italian crime family known as the Black Hand, so when the Italian nanny is murdered the family assume it was the result of an attempted kidnapping, but Jane believes that the murder may be more personal.

Freeland, Liz. An Orphan of Hell’s Kitchen (Ken, 15.95) Mar. In 1914 New York rookie policewoman Louise Faulk investigates the death of a prostitute in one of the most violent areas of the city.

Gleason, C.M. Murder at the Capitol (Ken, 26.00) Feb. Abraham Lincoln’s security chief investigates the murder of a government official with Southern sympathies who is found dead in the partially completed Capitol building in the third in the series set during the Civil War.

Harman, Claire. Murder by the Book (RH, 16.95) Feb. A wonderfully written look at the actual murder of Lord Russell in London in 1840, and the fear that gripped Londoners that it was books, particularly the popular books about unrepentant criminals such as Jack Shepherd that caused his valet to commit the nefarious deed. I loved this.

Harris, C.S. Who Slays the Wicked (Brk, 16.00) Mar. Sebastian St. Cyr must help find the murderer of a dissolute nobleman before his niece, the man’s widow, is accused of the crime in the latest in this Regency series.

Healey, Jane. The Animals at Lockwood Manor (HMH, 26.00) Mar. A young woman in charge of caring for a natural history collection that has been moved from WWII London to a manor house in the country for safekeeping discovers that there is no protection in the house—someone or something is stalking her and the collection.

Hunter, Phillip. Murder under a Green Sea (IPG, 14.95) Mar. In the first of a new British series combining humor and adventure, an impecunious WWI veteran married to a wealthy woman finds himself under suspicion when the surviving members of his unit at Passchendaele are being murdered.

James, Rebecca. The Woman in the Mirror (STM, 26.99) Mar. In 1948 a woman goes to an isolated manor house off the coast of Cornwall to be the governess of the twin children of a widower injured during WWII and discovers that the house and the family have dark secrets.

Katsu, Alma. The Deep (Put, 27.00) Mar. A maid who survives the sinking of the Titanic is working as a nurse on its sister ship the Brittanic during WWI when she re-encounters one of the passengers who also survived, now a soldier wounded in the fighting in a supernatural novel about the ill-fated ships. I really enjoyed this creepy tale.

Keefe, Patrick Radden. Say Nothing (RH, 16.95) Feb. The murder of a thirty-eight year old mother of ten in 1972 Belfast is the starting point for this story of the consequences of the troubles that wracked Northern Ireland during the 1970s and left many revolutionaries wondering if their crimes were acts of war or murder.

Kidd, Jess. Things in Jars (SS, 27.00) Feb. A gothic historical mystery set in London in 1863 featuring an eccentric female detective who investigates the disappearance of a very extraordinary child, and who herself is haunted by the ghost of a boxer. Kidd is masterful at creating magical stories that combine mystery, gothic, and just plain weirdness.

Larson, Erik. The Splendid and the Vile (RH, 32.00) Mar. The story of Winston Churchill who rallied his countrymen to stand up to the German assault during WWII, and whose story stands as a beacon of hope for politicians behaving as statesmen and patriots during dark times.

Lawhon, Ariel. Code Name Hélène (DD, 27.95) Mar. A novel based on the life of a real-life American journalist in occupied France during WWII who became a British-trained Allied spy who always parachuted into France wearing high heels and red lipstick.

Lawton, John. Hammer to Fall (IPS, 26.00) Mar. MI6 spy—and sometimes smuggler—Joe Wilderness is spending the swinging sixties in Finland where he was sent after his previous posting went sour, but a scheme to smuggle vodka into the USSR turns dangerous when it turns out his Russian friend is looking into minerals used to fabricate atom bombs, minerals mined in Finland.

Lloyd, Catherine. Death Comes to the Nursery (Ken, 26.00) Feb. In a blend of domestic drama and high-society intrigue, Lucy and her husband investigate the death of their strikingly beautiful new nursemaid, who may have been a London actress hiding out in the country.

Macallister, Greer. Woman 99 (Source, 15.99) Feb. When her troublesome sister is committed to an insane asylum by her parents, a young woman commits herself in order to rescue her sister, but when she uncovers dark secrets that the inmates are keeping, she realizes that neither she nor her sister may be able to leave alive.

MacNeal, Susan Elia. The King’s Justice (Ban, 27.00) Feb. In London in 1943 a serial killer is leaving suitcases filled with bones—and a white feather--around the city, and Maggie Hope, who has been working with a group of conscientious objectors diffusing unexploded bombs investigate before her friends become the next victims.

Marcantonio, Patricia. Felicity Carrol and the Murderous Menace (Per, 26.99) Feb. In the second in this series set in Victorian England, Felicity is asked to go to the American west to investigate the murder of a prostitute that resembles the work of Jack the Ripper.

Massey, Sujata. The Satapur Moonstone (Soho, 16.95) Mar. In the second in this excellent series set in 1920s India, Bombay attorney Perveen Mistry, India’s first female attorney, travels to the mountain principality of Satapur to settle a royal dispute in a mystery with the feel of a Golden Age locked-room mystery. This is an excellent series for fans of Maisie Dobbs and The Raj Quartet. TFOB.

Maxwell, Alyssa. A Silent Stabbing (Ken, 26.00) Mar. Lady Phoebe and her lady’s maid Eva investigate when the brother of an orchard owner is found murdered after abetting an American land developer in his scheme to persuade the owner to sell his land, and the orchard owner is arrested

May, Peter. The Man with no Face (Quer, 16.99) Feb. In an early mystery by May available in the U.S. for the first time, a journalist is sent to Brussels in 1979 during a political crisis, which turns deadly when a fellow journalist and a British politician are found shot dead and the only witness is the journalist’s autistic daughter who claims they were killed by a “man with no face.”

Myers, Amy. Death at the Wychbourne Follies (SH, 17.95) Jan. In the second in this series set in the 1920s and featuring an Escoffier-trained chef employed by an aristocratic lady, a reunion of artistes planned as a fundraiser for WWI veterans turns murderous and Nell must leave the kitchen to help a Scotland Yard detective find a killer.

Nesbit, TaraShea. Beheld (Bloom, 26.00) Mar. A well-researched murder mystery set in 1630 set in the Plymouth Colony where the conflict between those who have received the benefits of land that was promised them for emigrating and those who have not, leads to a series of deaths.

Olson, Lynne. Madame Fourcade’s Secret War (RH, 20.00) Mar. The true story of the French socialite and mother who became the leader of the most extensive spy network in occupied France during WWII.

Perry, Anne. Triple Jeopardy (Ball, 17.00) Mar. Daniel Pitt is forced to defend a British diplomat accused of the theft of a necklace in the US, but he begins to believe that there is something going on that is more serious than a jewel heist.

Phillips, Gary. Matthew Henson and the Ice Temple of Harlem (PGW, 16.00) Feb. Based on the first African-American to reach the North Pole, this adventure series set in Harlem during the 1920s features Henson agreeing to help a controversial spiritual leader when his adult daughter is kidnapped, a task that puts him in touch with the infamous gangster Dutch Schultz. Phillips is great.

Raybourn, Deanna. A Dangerous Collaboration (Brk, 16.00) Feb. Veronica Speedwell agrees to accompany her colleague’s brother to a house-party on an island off the Cornish coast, where they discover that the guests all have a connection to the host’s wife who disappeared three years earlier.

_____. A Murderous Relation (Brk, 26.00) Mar. Veronica Speedwell goes undercover to prevent a royal scandal just as Jack the Ripper is terrorizing London—and there is suspicion that one of the princes may be the notorious murderer.

Robertson, Cara. The Trial of Lizzie Borden (SS, 17.00) Mar. Using legal transcripts, contemporary newspaper accounts, unpublished letters by Lizzie Borden herself, the author looks at the famous murder and resulting trial in its historical context. TFOB.

Rosner, Jennifer. The Yellow Bird Sings (STM, 25.99) Mar. Escaping the Nazis in Poland in 1941, a Jewish woman and her young daughter find refuge in the barn of a gentile couple, but when the Nazis come to appropriate the barn, mother and child must split up with the daughter hiding in a convent and the mother living in the woods.

Rubenhold, Hallie. The Five (HMH, 16.99) Mar. The story of the lives of the five victims of Jack the Ripper, commonly identified as prostitutes, shows five women whose lives were far more interesting and varied—and whose greatest misfortune was to have been born poor and female.

Stern, Herbert J. and Alan A. Winter. Wolf (Sky, 27.99) Feb. An amnesiac WWI soldier in a mental hospital in Germany becomes friends with a corporal suffering from hysterical blindness, and their friendship that extends over the next fifteen years is the basis for an examination of the question of how an unsuccessful painter could become the most maligned and malignant psychopath of the twentieth century, in a well-researched novel that is shockingly timely.

Todd, Charles. The Black Ascot (HC, 16.99) Jan. Ian Rutledge is assigned to the cold case of a man who escaped from justice years before after a shocking murder in 1910 during a horse race in honor of Edward VII, a man who reportedly has returned to England, but Rutledge finds his own sanity called into question after a shocking incident, and realizes that the only way to save his career is to find the murderer.

_____. A Divided Loyalty (HC, 28.99) Feb. Ian Routledge is assigned to the cold case of an unidentified murdered woman, but when a colleague is sent to investigate another murder of an unidentified woman near Stonehenge, it appears that the cases may be connected.

Verble, Margaret. Cherokee America (HMH, 15.99) Feb. In 1875 in Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma), the murder of a Cherokee man by white killers gives a judge reason to impose federal law on protected Native land, but a group townspeople, including a prosperous widow with five sons, deceive the investigating U.S. marshals to preserve their sovereignty in a novel of false promises, broken treaties, and mother love.

Vidich, Paul. The Coldest Warrior (Peg, 25.95) Feb. In 1975, a security investigator is assigned to reopen the case of a biological-warfare scientist who fell to his death twenty years before, but he runs into resistance from the agents who were involved in the original case, and when a few die under suspicious circumstances, he begins to wonder if the agency is covering up a murder.

Waldherr, Kris. The Lost History of Dreams (SS, 17.00) Feb. A Victorian post-mortem photographer must transport the body of his cousin, a Byronesque poet to the chapel where the body of his late wife was laid to rest years before, but the caretaker refuses to let him inter his cousin until he listens to her story of the marriage between the poet and his wife in a debut gothic tale filled with authentic details of Victorian mourning customs.

Wilkinson, Lauren. American Spy (RH, 17.00) Mar. An African-American FBI operative is asked by the CIA to insinuate herself with the new leader of Burkina Faso in the mid-1980s in an effort to destabilize his government, but she finds herself and her loyalties torn, particularly after she decides to investigate the mysterious death of her older sister, also part of the intelligence community.

Winspear, Jacqueline. The American Agent (HC, 16.99) Mar. Driving an ambulance during the Blitz in 1940, Maisie Dobbs meets an American journalist found murdered in her flat the next morning, and when Scotland Yard enlists her help in solving the case, she is reunited with an attractive American agent.

Cappy’s Pick

Cappy has decided to take his bookselling responsibilities seriously by recommending mysteries for children or adults with a dog theme. (He may branch out to donkeys or squirrels, but strictly no cats allowed). This newsletter he recommends a mystery for middle-grade readers by Shauna Holyoak, Kazu Jones and the Denver Dognappers (Dis, 7.99) March, the first of a series featuring a Japanese-American girl and her ginormous dog who investigate when the neighbors’ dog is snatched.

Of Special Interest

I have marked the mystery writers with new books for the Tucson Festival of Books in March. You all know about the mystery writers like C.J. Box, James Rollins, Anne Hillerman, and J.A. Jance, but I want call your attention to three not-so-well-known writers who are well worth reading.

Paula Munier writes a series featuring a former military police officer and a bomb-sniffing dog who, with a Vermont game warden and his search and rescue dog, investigates crimes in rural Vermont.

Joanne Schaffhausen who writes a series featuring a Massachusetts police detective—an interesting, complicated, and intelligent woman—with well-crafted plotting and excellent characterization.

Annie Ward has written a crackerjack thriller that is part domestic thriller, part international thriller, and part classical whodunit—and a can’t-put-down read.

Beginning Tuesday, February 18, Clues Unlimited hours will change to Tuesday through Saturday 10-5, and Sunday, 12-4. The hours won’t change again until November, I promise.

Enjoy the lovely Tucson weather with a good mystery.

Chris and Cappy