Here is a non-fiction book about one of my favourite fictional private investigators, California-based Kinsey Milhone and her author, Sue Grafton.

Kinsey and Me: Stories by Sue Grafton

Description: In 1982, Grafton introduced readers to Kinsey Millhone. Thirty years later, Kinsey is an established international icon and Grafton is a number-one bestselling author. To mark this anniversary year, Grafton delivers stories that reveal Kinsey's origins and the author's past.

Read Grafton's interview with Oprah magazine here. She talks about writing, her childhood and her new book, Kinsey and Me.

or check out Sue Grafton's website
". . . Kinsey and Me has two parts: The nine Kinsey stories (1986-93), each a gem of detection; and the And Me stories, written in the decade after Grafton's mother died. Together, they show just how much of Kinsey is a distillation of her creator's past even as they reveal a child who, free of parental interventions, read everything and roamed everywhere. But the dark side of such freedom was that very parental distance. . ."

## Related posts:
MBTB review of T is for Trespass # 20

MBTB review of U is for Undertow # 21

Here is the full list of titles featuring Kinsey Millhone, a private eye in fictional Santa Teresa, California at Stop, You're Killing Me!

posted by Sharon

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
Eleven Pipers by C.C.Benison

Book # 2 with Father Tom Christmas, a widower with a 9-year-old daughter. He is the new vicar in Thornford Regis, a picturesque village in England

Summary: The annual Burns dinner at Thornford Regis is an occasion for bagpipes, haggis and scotch. It ends up an occasion for tragedy when Will Moir, one of the pipers, is found alone, in a tower, dead of an apparent heart attack. Father Tom Christmas, the vicar of the town, is privy to all of the secrets of its inhabitants, and is one of the first to find out that Will Moir was poisoned. NoveList

First book: Twelve Drummers Drumming

Rebus fans are rejoicing. After a stand-alone (Doors Open), and a couple of books featuring Internal Affairs officer Malcolm Fox (The Complaints, The Impossible Dead), author Ian Rankin has returned to the Edinburgh world of John Rebus, who is now retired from the police force, but working as a civilian on the Cold Case squad.
.

Standing in Another Man's Grave **** ½
by Ian Rankin

Here's what the Guardian review had to say:
Did anyone really believe Ian Rankin was going to stop writing about John Rebus, the cantankerous, alcoholic detective who was retired by his creator, to much mourning, in 2006? In retrospect, we should all have known better: Rankin was always going to find a way to keep Rebus on the page. He's just too good a character to let lie.
In Standing in Another Man's Grave – the book is dedicated to the late Scottish singer Jackie Leven; the title is Rebus's mishearing of Leven's line "another man's rain" – we find Rebus back on the case, working for the serious crime review unit, albeit in a civilian capacity. Still smoking, still drinking, he's looking into cold cases, working "with the long dead, murder victims forgotten by the world at large", when a woman arrives with a story. Her daughter vanished from Aviemore, on the A9, in 1999, and she believes the disappearance of a string of other young women from towns near the road over the next 12 years are linked. She's got nowhere with her theory but Rebus decides to listen, particularly as an ongoing missing person case also has links to the same road. more....

Read the EuroCrime review here.

* * *

See the full series in order here, starting with Knots and Crosses

Related post: MBTB review of Exit Music # 17

posted by Sharon

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
The Confession
by Charles Todd

Historical/British police procedural

Book # 14 with Ian Rutledge, a shell-shocked World War I veteran returning to his job at Scotland Yard, in London, England

Description: Declaring he needs to clear his conscience, a dying man walks into Scotland Yard and confesses that he killed his cousin five years earlier during the Great War. When Inspector Ian Rutledge presses for details, the man evades his questions, revealing only that he hails fromn a village east of London. With little information and no body to open an official inquiry, Rutledge begins to look into the case on his own.

Less than two weeks later, the alleged killer’s body is found floating in the Thames, a bullet in the back of his head. Searching for answers, Rutledge discovers that the dead man was not who he claimed to be. What was his real name — and who put a bullet in his head?

As January rolls around, there's nothing like curling up in front of the fireplace with a good dead body or two. This time of the year I like to reach for my favorite type of mystery...the historicals!! Here is a list of historical mysteries that is sure to warm those cold nights.

Dark Entry (2011)
By M. J. Trow

First in the thrilling new Kit Marlowe historical mystery series - Cambridge, 1583. About to graduate from Corpus Christi, the young Christopher Marlowe spends his days studying and his nights carousing with old friends. But when one of them is discovered lying dead in his King’s College room, mouth open in a silent scream, Marlowe refuses to accept the official verdict of suicide. Calling on the help of his mentor, Sir Roger Manwood, Justice of the Peace, and the queen’s magus, Dr John Dee, a poison expert, Marlowe sets out to prove that his friend was murdered.

The Illusion of Murder (2011)
By Carol McCleary
Book # 2 with Nellie Bly, an American investigative reporter, in Paris and around the world, starting in 1889

This is a Library Journal starred review:

Attempting to beat Jules Verne's round-the-world record, Victorian Age reporter Nellie Bly hides from official records the secret details about a mysterious death in the bustling harbor city of Port Said where she is targeted by a killer and embroiled in an international plot.
Book # 1 The Alchemy of Murder

A Mortal Terror (2012)
By James R. Benn
Book # 6 with Billy Boyle, World War II

This is a Publisher's Weekly Starred Review

1943: Billy Boyle is sent to Caserta, Italy, to investigate the murders of two American officers stationed there. The methods of murder are completely different, and it seems like the officers had no connection to each other, but one frightening fact links the murders: each body was discovered with a single playing card: the Lieutenant, the ten of hearts; the Captain, the jack of hearts. The message seems to be clear — if the murderer isn't apprehended, the higher ranks will be next. As the invasion at Anzio begins, Billy needs to keep a cool head amidst fear and terror as the killer calculates his next moves.
Book # 1 Billy Boyle

A Double Death on the Black Isle (2011)
By A. D. Scott
Book # 2 with journalists in the offices of the Highland Gazette, in the mid-1950s in the highlands of Scotland

Struggling over how to report a double murder in which a close friend has been implicated, Joanne Ross, a Scottish newspaper employee who is longing for her big break, helps to uncover dark secrets with origins in bitter cultural rivalries.
Book # 1 A Small Death in the Great Glen

Happy New Year!!

posted by Shiela

I browsed through an actual bookstore last weekend. Here are a few titles that caught my eye:

Rush of Blood
by Mark Billingham

A stand-alone thriller

"Three couples meet around the pool on their Florida holiday and become fast friends. But on their last night, their perfect holiday takes a tragic twist: the teenage daughter of another holidaymaker goes missing, and her body is later found floating in the mangroves.....read more"
Fantastic Fiction

* * *

A Parliament of Spies
by Cassandra Clark

# 4 with Hildegard, a wealthy recent widow who becomes an abbess in late 14th century York, England, in the Abbess of Meaux mysteries

"Autumn 1386. Hildegard of Meaux - a Cistercian Abbess with a keen instinct for crime solving - is accompanying the Archbishop of York, Alexander Neville, to London for the opening of Parliament amid much civic unrest. While packing to leave, the Archbishop's saucier is found brutally murdered in the ale vat, and it emerges that the culprit must be one of the Archbishop's party.....read more"
Fantastic Fiction

Fatal Frost by James Henry

# 2 in the series set in the early police career of Denton police officer Jack Frost.

"May, 1982. Britain celebrates the sinking of the Belgrano, Jimmy Savile has the run of the airwaves and Denton Police Division welcomes its first black policeman, DC Waters -- recently relocated from Bethnal Green. While the force is busy dealing with a spate of local burglaries, the body of fifteen-year-old Samantha Evans is discovered in woodland next to the nearby railway track. ....read more"
Fantastic Fiction

See the list of Jack Frost titles by R.D. Wingfield on the Stop, You're Killing Me! website

* * *

The Jewels of Paradise by Donna Leon
A stand-alone mystery

"Caterina Pellegrini is a native Venetian, and like so many of them, she's had to leave home to pursue her career. With a doctorate in baroque opera from Vienna, she lands in Birmingham, England. Birmingham, however, is no Venice. When Caterina gets word of a position back home, she jumps at the opportunity.
The job is an unusual one. After nearly three centuries, two locked trunks, believed to contain the papers of a baroque composer have been discovered......read more"
Fantastic Fiction

* * *

The Vanishing Point by Val McDermid
A stand-alone thriller

"Young Jimmy Higgins is snatched from an airport security checkpoint while his guardian watches helplessly from the glass inspection box. But this is no ordinary abduction, as Jimmy is no ordinary child. His mother was Scarlett, a reality TV star who, dying of cancer and alienated from her unreliable family, entrusted the boy to the person she believed best able to give him a happy, stable life: her ghost writer, Stephanie Harker....read more"
Fantastic Fiction

Find more new mysteries:
On the Fantastic Fiction site, use the New Books tab, then select Mystery and Thriller. Here are the October releases.

On the Stop, You're Killing Me! site, go to New Hardcovers and scroll through October and November 2012 releases.

posted by Sharon

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
The Wild Beasts of Wuhan
by Ian Hamilton

Action/adventure/investigator

# 3 with Ava Lee, a petite young Chinese-Canadian forensic accountant specializing in tracking large debts, working for “Uncle” based in Hong Kong

"Uncle and Ava are summoned by Wong Changxing, "The Emperor of Hubei" and one of the most powerful men in China, when he discovers that the Fauvist paintings he recently acquired are in fact forgeries. Ava uncovers a ring of fraudulent art dealers and follows their twisted trail.....read more.
Fantastic Fiction

MBTB review of The Water Rat of Wanchai # 1

Here are my picks from the New Mysteries featured on the Stop, You're Killing Me! New Hardcover list and the Fantastic Fiction Mystery page.

Most of these books are to be published in September, October and November 2012 and are available on the SILS catalogue to put requests on:

Death in the Floating City
by Tasha Alexander
[# 7 with Lady Emily, a young widow in Victorian London]

Death’s Door
by James R. Benn
[# 7 with Billy Boyle, a Boston cop from a family of Boston cops, on the staff of distant relative, General Eisenhower, during WWII]

The Snow White Christmas Cookie
by David Handler
[# 9 with Mitch Berger, a New York film critic, and Desiree “Des” Mitry, a black police detective, in Dorset, Connecticut]

A Death in the Small Hours
by Charles Finch
[# 6 with Charles Lenox, a gentleman sleuth, in 1860s London, England]

The Buzzard Table
by Margaret Maron
[# 18 with Deborah Knott, district judge in North Carolina]

Smoke Alarm
by Priscilla Masters
[# 4 with Martha Gunn, the coroner in Shrewsbury, England]
.

The Blackhouse
by Peter May
[# 1 in the Lewis trilogy with Fin Macleod, a detective inspector in Edinburgh, returns to his birthplace, the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland]

Paradise City
by Archer Mayor
[# 23 with Joe Gunther, now head of the new Vermont Bureau of Investigation]

Seven Days
by Deon Meyer
[# 3 with Benny Griessel, an aging, alcoholic police inspector in Capetown, South Africa]

Looking for Yesterday
by Marcia Muller
[# 30 with Sharon McCone, a legal investigator and private eye, in San Francisco, California]

Say You’re Sorry
by Michael Robotham
[# 7 with Vincent Ruiz, a detective inspector, and usually Joseph O’Loughlin, psychologist, in London, England]

The Other Woman
by Hank Phillippi Ryan
[# 1 with Jane Ryland, a disgraced newspaper reporter, and Jake Brogan, a homicide detective, in Boston, Massachusetts]

Blood Lance
by Jeri Westerson
[# 5 with Crispin Guest, a disgraced knight reduced to living by his wits on the mean streets of 1384 London, England]

posted by Sharon

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
Watching the Dark
by Peter Robinson

British police procedural

Book # 20 with Alan Banks, Eastvale detective chief inspector, in Yorkshire, England

Description: When Detective Inspector Bill Quinn is found murdered in the tranquil grounds of the St Peter's Police Treatment Centre, and compromising photographs are discovered in his room, DCI Banks is called in to investigate.

It emerges that Quinn's murder may be linked to the disappearance of an English girl in Tallinn, Estonia, six years earlier. While DI Annie Cabbot looks into the case in Eastvale, Banks travels to Tallinn to track down leads in the dark, cobbled alleys of the city's Old Town. . . . Fantastic Fiction

First book: Gallows View

This blog post should be called What Will Be New in the Bookstores.

I have selected titles from the Stop, You're Killing Me! New Hardcover list and the Fantastic Fiction Mystery page. Most of these books are to be published in July, August and September 2012 and are available on the SILS catalogue to put requests on:

Stephen Booth: Dead and Buried
# 12 with Ben Cooper, a detective constable trying to fill his police sergeant father’s shoes, and new partner, Diane Fry, recently transferred to Edendale’s force, in the Peak District in England
As moorland fires sweep across the Peak District national park, hundreds of firefighters and park rangers battle to prevent flames reaching a remote inn, once a famous landmark but now abandoned and boarded up. The blaze is just one of a series of random acts of arson which have destroyed miles of heather moorland - and once the flames have died, a grim surprise awaits DS Ben Cooper and DI Diane Fry: a body - dead for years...
.

Kate Burkholder: Gone Missing
# 4 with Kate Burkholder, female chief of police in the Amish town of Painters Mill, Ohio
Investigating the disappearance of an Amish teenager, chief of police Kate Burkholder and state agent John Tomasetti stumble on a dead body at the same time another girl goes missing . . .
.


Lee Child: A Wanted Man
# 17 with Jack Reacher, , ex-military policeman travelling around the U.S.
Reacher is hitchhiking and is picked up by three strangers, two men and one woman. But within minutes it becomes clear they're all lying — about everything — and then they run into a police roadblock on the highway . . .
.

Michael Connelly: The Black Box
# 18 with Harry Bosch, a homicide detective in Los Angeles
In a case that spans 20 years, Harry Bosch links the bullet from a recent crime to a file from 1992, the killing of a young female photographer during the L.A. riots. Harry originally investigated the murder, but it was then handed off to the Riot Crimes Task Force and never solved. . .
.

Tana French: Broken Harbour
# 4 with the Dublin Murder Squad
In Broken Harbour, a ghost estate outside Dublin - half-built, half-inhabited, half-abandoned - two children and their father are dead. The mother is on her way to intensive care. Scorcher Kennedy is given the case because he is the Murder squad's star detective. At first he and his rookie partner, Richie, think this is a simple one . . .
.

William Kent Krueger: Trickster's Point
# 12 with Cork O’Connor, a three-quarters Irish and one-quarter Ojibwe ex-sheriff in Aurora, Minnesota
Discovering that he has been set up when Native American Governor-elect Jubal Little is murdered with one of Cork's bow-hunting arrows, Cork O'Connor recalls his complex relationship with Jubal while struggling to clear his name and find the real killer.
.

Laura Lippman: When She was Good
. . . the powerfully gripping, intensely emotional story of a suburban madam, a convicted murderer whose sentence is about to be overturned, and the child they will both do anything to keep.
.

Karin Slaughter: Criminal
# 7 in the series with Will Trent, an agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation
GBI agent Will Trent, newly in love, is beginning to put a difficult past behind him. Then a local college student goes missing, and Will is inexplicably kept off the case by his supervisor and mentor, deputy director Amanda Wagner. Will cannot fathom Amanda's motivation until the two of them literally collide in an abandoned orphanage . . .
.

P. J. Tracy: Off the Grid
# 6 with Grace MacBride, founder of Monkeewrench, a game software company, in Minneapolis, Minnesota
On a sailboat ten miles off the Florida coast, Grace MacBride, partner in Monkeewrench Software, thwarts an assassination attempt on retired FBI agent John Smith. A few hours later, in Minneapolis, a fifteen-year-old girl is discovered in a vacant lot, her throat slashed. . . .
.

Stephen White: Line of Fire
# 19 with Alan Gregory, a clinical psychologist, and Lauren Crowder, an attorney, in Boulder, Colorado
. . . the devastating secret that could cost Alan Gregory everything — the first of the dramatic two-part conclusion to Stephen White's acclaimed bestselling series.

posted by Sharon

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye

Book # 1 with Timothy Wilde, an ex-bartender and officer in the newly organized police force, in 1845 New York City

Here's what the Publisher's Weekly review had to say:
/* Starred Review */ Set in 1845 New York City, Faye’s knockout first in a new series improves on her impressive debut, Dust and Shadow, which pitted Sherlock Holmes against Jack the Ripper. As Irish immigrants pour into the city, fleeing the potato famine in their homeland, Timothy Wilde, a 27-year-old former bartender, adjusts to life as a policeman in New York’s newly formed police force. As one of the first to wear the copper star, Wilde soon discovers more than one unwelcome surprise. In short order on his lower Manhattan beat, he runs across an infanticide and the body of a 12-year-old Irish boy whose spleen has been removed. The investigation the novice detective launches into the boy’s murder brings him deep into the heart of human darkness. Vivid period details, fully formed characters, and a blockbuster of a twisty plot put Faye in a class with Caleb Carr (The Alienist). Readers will look forward to the sequel.

Afterwards by Rosamund Lupton

Novelist: From the author of the acclaimed bestseller Sister comes a gripping, thrilling story of a mother who will do anything to protect her child.....

Here's what the Booklist reveiw had to say:
/* Starred Review */ When her children’s school catches on fire, Grace runs headlong into the inferno, determined to rescue her 17-year-old daughter, Jenny. But both end up unconscious and in critical condition in the hospital. It’s there that the two find themselves unfettered from their bodies and able to travel the hospital hallways, where they learn that the fire was set deliberately and that Jenny was the target. Grace discovers a newfound appreciation for her sister-in-law, Sarah, a smart and determined detective whom Grace had previously thought to be cold and judgmental. As the gutsy Sarah homes in on the arsonist and provides Grace’s devastated husband with emotional support, Grace rues the fact that they were never really friends. Grace must also comfort her daughter, who can barely stand to look at her severely burned face and whose chances of survival are only 50/50. Lupton takes her readers on a totally harrowing ride as she melds a suspenseful procedural with an emotionally fraught family drama. Within a taut and sinuous narrative, heartbreak over a broken family vies with fear that the arsonist will return to complete the job of killing Jenny. Masterful pacing and a highly charged atmosphere combine to make this an exceptionally gripping read.

* * *

If you like this book by Rosamund Lupton, NoveList recommends the following:

Started early, took my dog by Kate Atkinson
Tracy Waterhouse, a retired police detective leading a quiet life, makes a snap decision to relieve habitual offender Kelly Cross of a young child he's been dragging around town. Tracy soon learns her parental inexperience is actually the least of her problems, as much larger ones loom for her and her young charge. Meanwhile, detective Jackson Brodie embarks on a different sort of rescue--that of an abused dog. NoveList

Losing you by Nicci French
Preparing to leave for a vacation, Nina Landry awaits the return of her fifteen-year-old daughter, Charlie, who had spent the night at a friend's house, but Nina begins to worry when Charlie does not come home and no one takes the disappearance seriously. NoveList

The lovely bones by Alice Sebold
Looking down from heaven, 14-year-old Susie Salmon recounts her rape and murder and watches her family as they cope with their grief and "the lovely bones" growing around her absence. NoveList

* * *
This is a cross post from the Fiction Files blog.

posted by Sharon

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
Good as Dead
by Mark Billingham

British police procedural

Book # 10 with Tom Thorne, a middle aged detective inspector in London, England

Description: Detective Tom Thorne is forced to re-consider an old case when a greiving father takes one of Thorne's colleagues hostage and demands to know the truth about how his son died in prison from the man who put him away.

First book: Sleepyhead

Here are three books at the top of my "To Be Read" pile:

Ghost Hero by S.J. Rozan
Private investigator
# 11 with Lydia Chin, a 30-something Chinese American private eye, and Bill Smith, a 40-something Army brat private eye in New York City

Summary: Investigating a rumor about new paintings by a famous contemporary Chinese artist who has been dead for twenty years, private investigator Lydia Chin and her partner, Bill Smith, discover that a new client is not who he claims to be. NoveList

Hanging Hill by Mo Hayder
British police procedural. Non-series.

Summary: After a popular Bath teen's murder, police detective Zoe Benedict looks beyond the usual motives to solve the crime; while her divorced sister, Sally, takes a housekeeping job for a wealthy entrepreneur who behaves in increasingly suspicious ways. Publisher's description
.

The Disciple of Las Vegas by Ian Hamilton
Investigator
# 2 with Ava Lee, a young Chinese-Canadian forensic accountant who specializes in recovering massive debts.

Summary: Ava and her uncle are hired by Tommy Ordonez, the wealthiest man in the Philippines, to recover $50 million in a land swindle. NoveList

## Related post: MBTB review of The Water Rat of Wanchai # 1

posted by Sharon

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
Slipknot
by Priscilla Masters

British police procedural/forensic science

Book # 2 with Martha Gunn, the coroner in Shrewsbury, England

Description: When a pop diva is brutally attacked minutes before a theatrical performance and the chief suspect is promptly found dead, Detective Peter Diamond uncovers bitter rivalries among the cast and crew and must confront his own mysterious theater phobia to find the killer. NoveList

First book: River Deep

I was browsing through the New Releases in Hardcover from Stop, You're Killing Me! site
Here are a few I'll be tracking down:

March 2012 releases:

Force of Nature by C.J. Box
# 12 with Joe Pickett, a game warden in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming

The Magic Line by Elizabeth Gunn
# 4 with Sarah Burke, a recently divorced police detective, in Tucson, Arizona

Elegy for Eddie by Jacqueline Winspear
# 9 with Maisie Dobbs, a psychologist and investigator based in 1920s and 1930s London, England

When Maidens Mourn by C.S. Harris
# 7 with Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, an investigator in Regency England

* * *
April releases:

Kaleidoscope by Gail Bowen
# 13 with Joanne Kilbourn, a political science professor in Regina, Saskatchewan

Gypped by Carol Higgins Clark
# 18 with Regan Reilly, a private investigator based in Los Angeles, California

Beastly Things by Donna Leon
# 21 with Guido Brunetti, a police commissario in Venice, Italy

* * *
May releases:

Fun House by Chris Grabenstein
# 7 with police officer John Ceepak, a veteran of the Iraq war, and his sidekick Danny Boyle, in Sea Haven, New Jersey

As the Crow Flies by Craig Johnson
# 8 with Walt Longmire, veteran sheriff in Absaroka County, Wyoming

Powers of Arrest by Jon Talton
# 2 with Will Borders, a former homicide detective, in Cincinnati, Ohio

The Seven Wonders by Steven Saylor
# 13 with Gordianus the Finder, a private investigator in the 1st century BCE in Rome, Italy, in the Roma sub Rosa series. This is a prequel.

* * *
Also check the New Releases in Paperback page. Many of these are paperback originals (i.e. never published in hardcover)

posted by Sharon

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
Stagestruck
by Peter Lovesey

British police procedural

Book # 11 with Peter Diamond, a homicide detective in Bath, England

Description: When a pop diva is brutally attacked minutes before a theatrical performance and the chief suspect is promptly found dead, Detective Peter Diamond uncovers bitter rivalries among the cast and crew and must confront his own mysterious theater phobia to find the killer. NoveList

First book: The Last Detective

The Edgar Awards will be presented by the Mystery Writers of America on April 26, 2012.

Check out the website TheEdgars.com for the complete list of nominees in all categories (e.g. best nonfiction crime, best young adult).

Winners are indicated by *

Here are the nominees for
Best Novel

The Ranger by Ace Atkins

# 1 with Quinn Colson, an army ranger returning home from Afghanistan, in rural northeast Mississippi
.

* Gone by Mo Hayder

# 5 with Jack Caffery, a troubled police detective, and police diver Sergeant Flea Marley in the West Country, England
.

The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino

A clever mathematics teacher orchestrates a cover-up after a confrontation between a violent man and his terror-stricken ex-wife results in the man's accidental death.
.

1222 by Anne Holt

# 8 with Hanne Wilhelmsen, a lesbian police officer in Oslo, Norway. In this book, she is in a wheelchair, having been wounded in the line of duty. She is no longer a police officer.

## Related post: MBTB mini-review of 1222

Field Gray by Philip Kerr

# 7 with Bernie Gunther, a German private eye who hates the Nazis, in Berlin, Germany, 1936-1947, and later in Argentina, Cuba, and elsewhere

* * *

Best First Novel

Red on Red by Edward Conlon

Follows an unlikely partnership between two NYPD detectives, including one who is drawn to cases of rough urban combat and another who is compelled by suicide, missing persons, and supernatural cases.

Last to Fold by David Duffy

# 1 with Turbo Vlost, an ex-KGB operative, now a private investigator in New York City
.

All Cry Chaos by Leonard Rosen

# 1 with Henri Poincaré, a veteran Interpol agent
.
.

* Bent Road by Lori Roy

Celia Scott and her family move back to her husband's hometown in Kansas, where his sister died under mysterious circumstances twenty years before, and where Celia and two of her children struggle to adjust--especially when a local girl disappears.

Purgatory Chasm by Steve Ulfelder

# 1 with Conway Sax, a no-nonsense auto mechanic with a knack for solving difficult problems, around Framingham, Massachusetts
.
.

Best Paperback Original

* The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett

After eleven union men are found dead in a trolley car in 1919, a man named Hayes must discover the truth behind the murders--and behind the McNaughton Corporation and the Evesden, the company town it built--before he meets a grim end.

The Faces of Angels by Lucretia Grindle

A sweltering day in Florence, and newly-wed Mary Warren breaks away from her tour group in the Boboli Gardens to wander into a shady tunnel of trees. But the tranquil setting conceals a complex maze and a masked killer: within minutes Mary is severely attacked and her husband brutally murdered. A year later, and the murderer is still at large.
.

The Dog Sox by Russell Hill

Follows the adventures of Ray Adams and his girlfriend Ava after Ray buys her a semi-professional baseball team in Knights Landing, California, for her birthday and renames it the Dog Sox.
.

Death of the Mantis by Michael Stanley

# 3 with David Bengu, a large assistant police superintendent known as “Kubu” (hippopotamus), in Botswana
.

Vienna Twilight by Frank Tallis

# 5 with Max Liebermann, a psychoanalytic detective in turn-of-the-20th-century Vienna, Austria
.
.
posted by Sharon

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
The Fifth Victim
by Zoë Sharp

Investigator/Action/Adventure

Book # 9 with Charlotte “Charlie” Fox, a self-defense expert

Description: Charlie Fox is hired as a bodyguard for the daughter of a rich businesswoman whose circle of friends are increasingly the target of kidnappings while also seeking vengeance against the man who put her partner in a coma.

First book: Killer Instinct