Until I get more caught up with publishing my Mystery Memos on the MBTB blog, I'll be posting some highlights from each one (down below) and making the entire Mystery Memo available to Download here

This Mystery Memo has 4 Perfect Reads:
Tana French: Faithful Place (2010)
Peter James: Dead Like You (2010)
Stuart MacBride: Shatter the Bones (2011)
C.J. Sansom: Heartstone (2010)

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Charles Finch: A Stranger in Mayfair (2010) ****
Historical, set in London, England in Victorian times.
Book # 4 with Charles Lenox, consulting detective, Victorian gentleman and new Member of Parliament.

Charles is newly married to his next-door neighbour, Lady Jane.
A fellow parliamentarian asks for help in solving the murder of his footman. Charles suspects someone in the family or the household is likely to blame. Lots of personal detail, as Charles struggles with his new duties as Member of Parliament and husband. Nicely done. Very readable.

First book: A Beautiful Blue Death

Barbara Fradkin: Beautiful Lie the Dead (2010) ****
Canadian police procedural.
Book # 8 with Michael Green, Ottawa police inspector

A young doctor reports his fiancé missing during a blizzard. In the police investigation, they discover the woman made a secret trip to Montreal. The publisher calls this an “intensely dramatic psychological thriller”.
I like this series for the police procedural aspect, but I also like the main character Michael Green and his family.

First book: Do or Die

Tana French: Faithful Place (2010) *****

All her books feature police detectives on the murder squad in Dublin, Ireland, not a series really, but loosely connected. This one features Frank Mackey, a senior undercover cop.

Frank returns to his boyhood home in a poor section of Dublin after a suitcase is found in an abandoned house nearby. He recognizes the suitcase as the one belonging to his his girlfriend from 20 years ago who he was planning to run away with. She never showed up and disappeared that very night. He hasn’t been home since. After looking through the suitcase’s contents, he believes that someone from the neighbourhood, if not from his family, is responsible for her disappearance. It sucked me in. Not the standard police procedural.

First book: In The Woods

## Related post: MBTB review of The Likeness

Peter James: Dead Like You (2010) **** ½
British police procedural

Book # 6 with D.S. Roy Grace in Sussex, England

A man known as the shoe rapist has apparently re-appeared after an absence of 12 years. We see several of the crimes from the “inside” – which I skimmed. But the police work was well described and I like the character of Roy Grace, still dealing with the mysterious disappearance of his wife several years before.

First book: Dead Simple

Stuart MacBride: Shatter the Bones (2011) **** ½
British police procedural

Book # 7 with Logan “Lazarus” McRaie, DS, in Aberdeen, Scotland

The case: a young mother and daughter singing sensation from a competition TV show have been kidnapped for ransom and the police have very little to go on. There is a breakneck pace to the policing and McRaie’s personal life that makes the book hard to put down.
First book: Cold Granite

## Related posts:
MBTB full review of Cold Granite # 1
MBTB review of Dark Blood # 6

C.J. Sansom: Heartstone (2010) *****
Historical, set in England in 1545

Book # 5 with lawyer Matthew Shardlake

King Henry VIII is now married to Catherine Parr. The Queen asks Matthew to secretly help her. Her loyal servant wants someone to look into her son’s death. To investigate this, Matthew travels to an estate near Portsmouth. He is close to the action when the English fleet gathers to repell the expected French naval attack near there.
Great stuff: complex plot, great characters and the writing makes the era come alive.

First book: Dissolution

## Related post: MBTB review of Sovereign # 3

posted by Sharon

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
Silent Voices
by Ann Cleeves

British police procedural

Book # 4 with Vera Stanhope, a detective inspector in East Yorkshire, England

Description: When DI Vera Stanhope finds the body of a woman in the sauna room of her local gym, she wonders, briefly, if it’s a simple death from natural causes. But a closer inspection reveals ligature marks around the victim’s throat - death is never that simple...
Publisher

First book: The Crow Trap

Read a Eurocrime review of Silent Voices

I've just read the following two books, "first books" in two different series by author Laura DiSilverio:

Swift Justice (2010) ****
# 1 with Charlotte “Charlie” Swift, a former Air Force investigator, now working as a private investigator, in Colorado Springs, Colorado

Here's what Booklist had to say: /* Starred Review */ Charlotte “Charlie” Swift of Swift Investigations has just started on her newest case — finding the mother of a baby left with a woman who doesn’t want her husband to know she’s the baby’s grandmother. Then Gigi shows up; her ex-husband was Charlie’s silent partner, but he ran off with a much younger woman — after cleaning out the couple’s bank account—leaving Gigi with no income, two teenage kids, and the partnership papers for Swift Investigations. Loner Charlie definitely doesn’t need a middle-aged, inexperienced woman who has no idea of how to work as a private detective; but they’re stuck together. Readers will sympathize with Gigi, who manages to turn crazy assignments into even crazier situations. Meanwhile, Charlie’s case gets more complicated when the missing mother turns up dead. The odd-couple relationship between the two women may appeal to fans of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum and Lula. DiSilverio deftly mixes light, zany humor with the darkness of the crimes.

MBTB mini-review: I liked this a lot - a private investigator mystery with lashes of humor. Great characters.

Next book: Swift Edge

Die Buying (2011) ****
# 1 with Emma-Joy “E.J.” Ferris, a 30-something medically-retired military policewoman, now a security officer with the Fernglen Galleria, in Vernonville, Virginia, near Washington DC, in the Mall Cop series

Summary: A local developer is found naked and dead in a boutique window at the mall after someone liberates the reptiles from the pet store. E. J. Ferris decides to solve the case herself with the help of her grandpa, a retired CIA operative, after an arrogant homicide detective dismisses her as "only" a mall cop.

MBTB mini-review: E.J.'s actions are believable as a former military police officer. Her knee injury keeps her out of regular policing and she struggles with the limitations of her job as a shopping mall security officer.
An enjoyable read with an interesting setting.

Next book: All Sales Fatal

posted by Sharon

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
Crying Out Loud
by Cath Staincliffe

Private Investigator

Book # 8 with Sal Kilkenny, a single mother private eye in Manchester, England

Description: An abandoned baby on her doorstep significantly complicates the life and career of Manchester private investigator Sal Kilkenny, who is working on a difficult case involving a shattered client and a murder convict who has recanted a confession. NoveList

First book: Looking for Trouble

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

Down the Darkest Road
By Tami Hoag


MBTB review: Hoag has an eerie way of creating true-to-life characters. The emotions and paces she puts them through and their reactions are so vivid and raw, the reader can’t help but feel their pain and root for their success. Lauren’s desperation and helplessness at having lost her daughter and her husband to this sadistic pervert, who constantly taunts her and is still free to victimize someone else, is so evident in every single page it almost makes you want to shoot the killer yourself. On the other hand, her daughter’s feelings of neglect and her silent cries for help make you want to shake Lauren and tell her that she still has a daughter left. Hoag’s antagonists are so vile and creepy, yet you know that people like them are only too real which makes the subject matter of the book that much more disturbing. Like I said, she is a master at creating the most amazing characters.

This is more of a thriller or a psychology suspense story than a mystery as the identity of the perpetrator is known early on, although there is an unexpected gem of a twist at the end. It is the third book in a series set in Oak Knoll and some major plot points of the previous books are mentioned in casual conversation so if you’re a stickler for reading order, (and don’t want to know the identity of the killer in a previous novel) start with the first book in the series, Deeper than the Dead (2010). I have read many of Hoag’s books and although her past experience as a romance writer occasionally rears its sometimes ugly head, her mystery and suspense novels are a really good read.

Posted by Shiela

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.

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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