Stephen King

"Elevation"

Although Scott Carey doesn’t look any different, he’s been steadily losing weight. There are a couple of other odd things, too. He weighs the same in his clothes and out of them, no matter how heavy they are. Scott doesn’t want to be poked and prodded. He mostly just wants someone else to know, and he trusts Doctor Bob Ellis.

In the small town of Castle Rock, the setting of many of King’s most iconic stories, Scott is engaged in a low grade—but escalating—battle with the lesbians next door whose dog regularly drops his business on Scott’s lawn. 

One of the women is friendly; the other, cold as ice. Both are trying to launch a new restaurant, but the people of Castle Rock want no part of a gay married couple, and the place is in trouble. When Scott finally understands the prejudices they face–including his own—he tries to help. 

Unlikely alliances, the annual foot race, and the mystery of Scott’s affliction bring out the best in people who have indulged the worst in themselves and others.

Elizabeth Nadler

"One Way or Another"

What begins as a beautiful evening at a party on a yacht ends with attempted murder…and a quest for revenge. Ellen never expected a dream vacation to turn so ugly. One moment she was standing on the deck of a fifty-foot yacht and then next, she felt a burning sting in her side. 

A stab wound. And then a push. 

She is in the water. She can see people on the yacht, but they have not noticed she is gone, and all seem to have deliberately turned their backs, as the yacht begins slowly to pull away from her. The waves wash over her, sending her further to doom. These are her friends and one is her love. Each one had a reason for getting rid of her though she would not have put murder on that list. Until now. 

Revenge burns so deeply inside her she knows she will survive this somehow. She will get them. Each one of them—and there are three men, one woman. She will get them. One way or another. 

Spencer Quinn

“Paw and Order”

Clever. But

not what I

want in 

my mystery

novels. 

In the seventh installment in the brilliant New York Times bestselling mystery series, canine narrator Chet and PI Bernie Little journey to Washington, DC, and the dog-eat-dog world of our nation’s capital.

Stephen King has called Chet “a canine Sam Spade full of joie de vivre.” Robert B. Parker dubbed Spencer Quinn’s writing “major league prose.” Now the beloved team returns in another suspenseful novel that finds Chet sniffing around the capital city and using his street smarts to uncover a devilish plot.

Chet and Bernie pay a visit to Bernie’s girlfriend, Suzie Sanchez, an ace reporter living in far-off Washington, DC. She’s working on a big story she can’t talk about, but when her source, a mysterious Brit with possible intelligence connections, runs into trouble of the worst kind, Bernie suddenly finds himself under arrest.

Meanwhile Chet gets to know a powerful DC operative who may or may not have the goods on an ambitious politician. Soon Chet and Bernie are sucked into an international conspiracy, battling unfamiliar forces under the blinking red eyes of a strange bird that Chet notices from the get-go but seems to have slipped by everybody else. Most menacing of all is Barnum, a guinea pig with the fate of the nation in his tiny paws.

As Harry Truman famously quipped, “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.” Too bad he didn’t get to meet Chet!

Marcus Sakey

“The Blade Itself”

Wow. This guy

has it. I need 

to buy an 

E-reader.

New authors come and go, with few of them having the staying power to make a lasting career in this crazy business. It's impossible to predict who is going to make it and who is not. Judging by Marcus Sakey's debut novel, The Blade Itself, however, it seems likely that he's going to be around for quite a while.

Danny Carter, the book's protagonist, is just a regular guy living an ordinary life. He's got a good job, a nice condo in the city and a girlfriend he loves. But he also has a secret. Seven years before, he was involved in a robbery where a man was shot and nearly killed.

Danny's partner went to prison, but Danny went free. Now the partner has been released, and has come looking for Danny, eager to resume their life of crime. Danny wants no part of that, however. He's determined to stay on the straight and narrow. Unfortunately, for him, his former partner isn't willing to take no for an answer.

Marcus Sakey writes like he's been doing this for a lifetime. Reading The Blade Itself one can make guesses about the authors who may have influenced him, people like Elmore Leonard, George Pelecanos and Dennis Lehane. What's most impressive, however, is that rather than resembling the work of those other authors, Sakey's writing reads as if it were all his own.

His prose is so polished, his eyes and ears so keenly attuned, that it's hard to believe that this is his first novel. The Blade Itself has its flaws – it can be too sentimental at times, and the plot requires a little too much suspension of disbelief – but it is nevertheless a remarkable debut, one of the best to come along in some time.

Review by David J. Montgomery

Davis Bunn

“Strait of Hormuth”

Was looking

for a new

author, but he

isn't the one. 

The threat of an Iranian blockade of the narrow Strait of Hormuz is escalating global tensions. Sanctions against Tehran have begun to bite, and it seeks to retaliate by cutting off vital shipping routes for crude oil. The specter of a preemptive Israeli strike has US officials on edge as they struggle to keep the world from plunging into the abyss.

Davis Bunn

Stymied in its efforts to uncover the sources of funding that bolster the Iranian nuclear program, the State Department calls on Marc Royce to investigate. With little to go on, he'll have to rely on an old ally. Kitra Korban has ties to people with the means to get things done, so long as no questions are asked.

But Iran is on the brink of nuclear capability, and time is running out. 

Read more about Davis Bunn  

Chelsea Cain

"The Night Season"

He captured the Beauty Killer, one of the most deranged serial killers in the country. Now, Portland police detective Archie Sheridan faces a different kind of killer - a brutal rain season that has flooded the Willamette River, claiming several lives. As water levels rise, so does the fear. Because some of the victims didn't drown;they were murdered.

The first body contains a rare poison. Three others prove to be murders as well. And with each gruesome discovery the medical examiner uncovers, Archie begins to realize he has not escaped his nightmares, even with his deadliest enemy behind bars. The flood has washed up old skeletons from the past. And a ruthless new serial killer rules the night...

---

Read more about Cain.

Matthew Quirk

The 500 

Mike Ford is a former con artist who's been plucked from his Harvard Law School classroom to be an associate at The Davies Group, Washington's most high-powered and well-respected strategic consulting firm. 

Their specialty: pulling strings and peddling influence for the five hundred most powerful people inside the Beltway, the men and women who really run Washington -- and by extension the country, and the world.

The namesake of the firm, Henry Davies, knows everyone who matters; more importantly, he knows their secrets. Davies' experience goes back 40 years -- he worked for Lyndon Johnson, jumped shipped to Nixon, then put out his own shingle as the Hill's most cut-throat and expensive fixer. Now he's looking for a protégé to tackle his most high-stakes deal yet, and Mike fits the bill.

Quickly pulled into a seductive, dangerous web of power and corruption, Mike struggles to find his way out. But how do you save your soul when you've made a deal with the devil? 

Read more about Quirk here. 

Blaise Clement

"The Cat Sitter's Nine Lives" 

Plucky heroine Dixie Hemingway is back in this ninth installment of Blaize Clement's beloved cozy mystery series.

While driving along the beachside road that runs through the center of her hometown Dixie witnesses a terrible head-on collision. Ever the hero, she springs into action and pulls one of the drivers from his car just before it explodes in flames. 

A little shaken but none the worse for wear, Dixie proceeds to her local bookstore where she meets Cosmo, a fluffy, orange tomcat, and Mr. Hoskins, the store's kind but strangely befuddled owner. The next day the driver whose life she saved claims that he is Dixie's husband.

Meanwhile, both Cosmo and Mr. Hoskins have disappeared without a trace, and a mysterious phone call from a new client lures her to a crumbling, abandoned mansion on the outskirts of town. Soon Dixie finds herself locked in a riddle of deception, revenge, murder, and mystery.

The Cat Sitter's Nine Lives features a compelling main character and a riveting plot that is bound to satisfy the appetites of Dixie Hemingway fans and newcomers to the series.

"The Cat Sitter's Cradle"

Blaize Clement won fans all over the world with the charm and wit of her pet-sitting mysteries. Now, with the help of her son, author John Clement, Blaize's beloved heroine Dixie Hemingway is back for yet another thrilling adventure in this critically-acclaimed series. 

Dixie has built a nice, quiet life for herself in the sleepy town of Siesta Key, a sandy resort island off the coast of Florida. In fact, her pet-sitting business is going so well she's even taken on part-time help: Kenny, a handsome young surfer who lives alone in a rickety old houseboat. 

But things get a little messy when, on an early morning walk in the park with a client's schnauzer, Dixie makes a shocking discovery. Hidden among the leafy brambles is a homeless girl, alone and afraid, cradling a newborn baby in her arms. 

Dixie takes the young girl under her wing, even though she's just been hired by Roy Harwick, the snarky executive of a multi-national oil company, to care for his equally snarky Siamese cat, Charlotte, along with his wife's priceless collection of rare, tropical fish. 

It's not long before Dixie stumbles upon a dead body in the unlikeliest of places, and soon she's set adrift in a murky and dangerous world in which no one is who they appear to be. Smart, fast-paced and entertaining, 

"Cat Sitter Among the Pigeons"

Just found this

author. Now, 
I know she's 
deceased.

Author Blaize Clement has earned herself a legion of fans with the first five books in her pet-sitting mystery series. Now Blaize's beloved heroine, Dixie Hemingway, is back, and when Dixie's latest assignment turns dangerous, it's up to her to save the day.

Dixie, no relation to you-know-who, is helping an injured and cantankerous man take care of Cheddar, his orange shorthair cat. 

Soon Dixie finds herself totally smitten with the man's adorable infant great-granddaughter.  But the baby's naive young mother has enough knowledge about certain powerful local big-money honchos to send them to prison for life, and they are willing to do anything, even kill her baby, to shut her up.

Caught in the turmoil caused by the grandfather's prickly pride, the granddaughter's misguided plans to regain her young husband's respect by telling the truth in court, and the ruthless determination of wealthy villains to preserve their ill-gotten millions, Dixie is the only person who can rescue the baby. 

And she has to do it without letting law-enforcement people know -- not even Lieutenant Guidry, with whom she has a new romantic relationship.

"Duplicity Dogged the Daschund"

Readers raved about Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter, the fabulous first novel from author Blaize Clement. 

Now everyone's favorite pet-sitting sleuth, Dixie Hemingway, is back with her second riveting case. Everybody who loves dachshunds knows about their adventurous streak. 

So when Mame, the elderly dachshund in Dixie Hemingway's care, gets away from her to investigate a mound of mulch, Dixie isn't surprised. 

What the dachshund digs up, however, is not only a surprise but triggers a set of jolting events that puts Dixie at the center of a hunt for a psychopathic killer, a killer who believes Dixie saw him leaving the scene of a brutal murder. . . . 

Featuring the author's signature pizzazz, lovable four-legged creatures, and appealing cast of human support characters that readers came to know and love in Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter, this latest installment is sure to win Blaize Clement a whole new legion of fans. 
hund"

Alan Bradley

"Speaking From Among the Bones"


Couldn't get into this book. Thought I was almost into it , but it veered off into weirdness. 

Too bad. 

I may try another one of this author's later, but right now I'd say it's not for me. 

Donna Leon

"Unto Us A Son is Given" 

"Your situation is always ambiguous, isn't it, Guido?," his father-in-law, Count Orazio Falier, observes of Donna Leon's soulful detective, Guido Brunetti, at the beginning of her superb 28th Brunetti novel, Unto Us A Son Is Given . 

"The world we live in makes that necessary," Brunetti presciently replies. 

Count Falier was urging his Venetian son-in-law to investigate, and preferably intervene in, the seemingly innocent plan of the Count's best friend, the elderly Gonzalo Rodr guez de Tejada, to adopt a much younger man as his son. 

Under Italian inheritance laws this man would then be heir to Gonzalo's entire fortune, a prospect Gonzalo's friends find appalling. For his part, Brunetti wonders why the old man, a close family friend, can't be allowed his pleasure in peace. 

And yet, what seems innocent on the Venetian surface can cause tsunamis beneath. Gonzalo unexpectedly, and literally, drops dead on the street, and one of his friends just arrived in Venice for the memorial service, is strangled in her hotel room--having earlier sent Gonzalo an email saying "We are the only ones who know you cannot do this," referring to the adoption. 

Now with an urgent case to solve, Brunetti reluctantly untangles the long-hidden mystery in Gonzalo's life that ultimately led to murder--a resolution that brings him way more pain than satisfaction. 

Once again, Donna Leon brilliantly plumbs the twists and turns of the human condition, reuniting us with some of crime fiction's most memorable and enduring characters.

“Beastly Things” 

The death of an inoffensive veterinarian takes Commissario Guido Brunetti once more into the heart of the human beast.

Even after the victim is identified—and it’s a good long time before he is—the name of Dottor Andrea Nava’s killer seems less mysterious than the question of why someone, anyone, would have stabbed him in the back three times and dumped his body into a Venetian canal. 

Although he’s estranged from his wife, Anna Doni, she faints from either grief or guilt when Brunetti and his friend, Inspector Lorenzo Vianello, break the news to her. Clara Baroni, his assistant at the Clinica Amico Mio veterinary practice, can shed no light on his death. 

And although his sad little dalliance with Giulia Borelli, Director Alessandro Papetti’s assistant at the slaughterhouse where he moonlighted part time, may have threatened his marriage, it hardly seems a weighty enough motive for murder. It’s not until after a tour of the slaughterhouse brings Brunetti and Vianello up against the horrid realities behind the meat they placidly consume every day that Brunetti realizes that carcasses aren’t the most bestial presences lurking there.

Brunetti, who airily tells his wife Paola, “I don’t do ethical,” spends less time than usual (Drawing Conclusions, 2011, etc.) butting heads with his nemesis, Vice-Questore Giuseppe Patta. But his conspiratorial dealings with his omni-competent assistant Signora Elettra and his suave attempts at acting dumb while he’s questioning his few suspects are equally rewarding.

Harlan Coben

Click here for Coben's other novels. 

As usual, a
real page

turner.

"Run Away" 

 You've lost your daughter. She's addicted to drugs and to an abusive boyfriend. And she's made it clear that she doesn't want to be found. 

Then, quite by chance, you see her busking in New York's Central Park. But she's not the girl you remember. This woman is wasted, frightened and clearly in trouble. You don't stop to think. You approach her, beg her to come home. 

She runs. And you follow her into a dark and dangerous world you never knew existed. Where criminal gangs rule, where drugs are the main currency, and murder is commonplace. 

 Now it's your life on the line. And nowhere and no one is safe.

Marsha Landreth

“The Holiday Murders”

When Sheridan, Wyoming, is rocked by a series of rape-murders linked to holidays from Valentine's Day to New Year's, hyperactive medical-examiner Dr. Samantha Turner painstakingly fits together the forensic evidence that enables her dimwitted police colleagues to make an arrest after Sam bushwacks the murderer herself. 

But then Sam insists that the evidence against the suspect, who confesses to six killings, actually clears him of one. 

Marsha Landreth

Getting no sympathy from anxious city fathers--several of whom seem to have been involved with the telltale victim--she tips her hand to the second killer, not realizing that her only remaining ally, her late husband's son Derek, has his own secret interest in the case--and, unfortunately, in her. 

A determined and surprisingly successful attempt to compete with Patricia Cornwell. Sam Turner's first case leaves you hungry for more. Read more about Landreth

Elizabeth Benedict

“Almost”

Stumbled on

this author

and I like

her a lot. 

Elizabeth Benedict's fourth novel, is "her most spirited to date" (New York Times Book Review). 

Forty-something narrator Sophy Chase has just begun a lighthearted, romantically adventurous life in New York City when she learns that her almost ex-husband has been found dead on the New England resort island where she left him just months before.

Lured back to the island by feelings she thought she had left behind, Sophy must navigate treacherous emotional terrain involving her grown stepdaughters, a former lover who is now a celebrity lawyer, the mystery of her husband's death -- and her own darkest impulses.

Benedict's  novels have established her reputation as a writer who “specializes in the subterranean currents of modern relationships, the secret motivations and betrayals that underlie everyday interactions. 

Read more about  Benedict here. 

Lisa Black

"Close to the Bone"

Forensic scientist Theresa MacLean stumbles across a murder rather too close for comfort when she returns to the Medical Examiner's office following a late-night call to find one deskman missing and the other beaten to death. 

Written in blood above the dead man s head is a single word: Confess.

It's the first time a homicide has taken place actually within the ME's office. Medical Examiner Stone works on how to spin the news while Theresa works the scene.

Lisa Black

As she painstakingly pieces the clues together, Theresa realizes that she has become an integral part of a ruthless killer's murderous agenda. And if she is to survive, she must find out what really happened to Diane all those years ago. 

When a second victim is discovered, Theresa uncovers a link to the death of another co-worker, records secretary Diane Allman, who was murdered in her own home ten years before. 

Read more about Lisa Black here

Dorothy Francis

"Cold-case Killer"

Nice surprise. 

When foot reflexologist Keely Moreno and her boyfriend, P.I. Punt Ashford, help Maxine Jackson and her son Randy search for the long-ago killer of Randy's deceased girlfriend, they endanger their lives.

Randy, who has been unlawfully imprisoned for 20 years, has now been released and has returned to his home in Key West. DNA evidence proved that he did not murder Dyanne Darby. 

Randy's bitter, because the true murderer still walks free, while Randy went to jail. He has received no money from the courts to compensate him for his years behind bars. Only his mother offers him a home, and nobody will offer him a job.

Dorothy Francis

A popular girl, Dyanne dated Randy and other divers who helped Mel Fisher search for the Atocha, an ancient Spanish galleon that sank near the Florida Keys. 

Randy suspects that one of the other divers killed Dyanne out of jealously - and he's determined to find the culprit. Soon, Keely and Punt find themselves involved in the investigation and facing down the real killer. Read more about Francis here. 


"Killer in Control"

Kitt Morgan's hope of a singing career dies after a botched surgery. 

Moving forward, she earns a job on her Iowa town's police force, trying for a law enforcement career like her father's.While on suspension for shooting an unarmed criminal, Kitt visits her sister at her Key West B&B. 

Here, she becomes embroiled in the murder investigation of Abra Barrie, a former B&B guest. While Kitt tries to find the murderer, the Iowa grand jury declares her shooting of the criminal an act of self-defense. 

She's free to return to her police job. But does she want to? Big questions remain in Key West. Who is the killer? Is Kitt next on his list?

"Conch Shell Murder"

Detective Katie Hassworth has resigned her teaching job when a student shot her and then himself in her classroom. She joins the student's father in a Key West detective agemcy and becomes involved in solving a murder in which the victim was bludgeoned with a conch shell. Katie talks with many suspects including the victim's daughter and son-in-law,husband,lover,secretary,Key West mayor, and Director of Key West housing development. She faces death, but triumphs as she confronts the villain and gets a confession. 

Though she has partnered with former Miami cop Mac McCartel for two years, former schoolteacher Hasworth has been bonded and licensed as a private detective for a few months. Her confidence is limited so she is hesitant to take on a murder investigation especially with her mentor out of town even though her landlady and friend Diane Dade asks her to look into the death of her mother Alexa Chitting. Reluctantly Katie agrees to investigate the homicide ruled a robbery gone bad by the Key West police and concurred with by Mac.

Katie begins her inquiries at the scene of the crime, Alexa's office, where the culprit killed the victim using a conch shell that ironically symbolizes birth. Katie finds an obscure bullet that the cops overlooked and believes more than just a robbery occurred as Alexa was changing her will. However, she wonders who were the losers if Alexa had signed her revised will and would one of them kill to keep his or her inheritance? Katie learns the answer as she becomes a target when she gets too close.

This engaging private investigative tale hooks readers because the heroine lacks confidence yet courageously seeks to solve the homicide against staggering professional odds. The story line reads more like an amateur sleuth cozy as the violence is left off the pages and Katie is learning on the job. Katie is a delightful individual and the support cast enables the audience to understand her, especially her fears, much better even when they fail to cooperate. 

Betty Rowland

"Dirty Work"

A crime Sukey shouldn’t be investigating . . . if she wants to stay alive.   

The work of a Scenes of Crime Officer is usually straightforward but this particularly gory murder is messy in more ways than one. 

 Sukey's habit of getting overly involved in cases has been putting a strain on her affair with DI Jim Castle, but this time he can’t afford to be indifferent to her conclusions. 

Read more about Rowlands here

C. S. Challinor

“Christmas is  Murder”

Christmas in the English countryside―what could be more charming? Not even a blizzard can keep Rex Graves away from Swanmere Manor, a historic hotel in East Sussex. 

But instead of Christmas cheer, the red-haired Scottish barrister finds a dead guest. Was it a stroke that killed old Mr. Lawdry? Or an almond tart laced with poison?

When more guests die, all hopes for a jolly holiday are dashed. Worst of all, the remote mansion is buried under beastly snow. No one can leave. 

C.S. Challinor

Confined with a killer, no one can enjoy their tea without suspicion and scrutiny. Rex takes it upon himself to solve the mystery, but the most intriguing evidence―a burnt manuscript―offers few clues. 

Could the killer be the sherry-swilling handyman? The gay antiques dealer with a biting wit? The quarreling newlyweds? Surely, it's not Helen d'Arcy, the lovely lass Rex seems to be falling for . . . Read more about Challinor here.