April Titles

Another week and I am still here. I really don't foresee any long term absences in the near future so....I will be blogging weekly. I will try to finish up April but it is possible that next week might be a combination of April May. Let's see how many I can fit in.

Ross Armstrong is a classically trained English actor who has performed on stage and film. He decided to add novelist to the list. The Watchers is his debut and it comes out on April 25. The story is told in the first person through the eyes of Lily Gullick, a self proclaimed bird watcher (who actually spends her time spying on people). When an elderly woman turns up dead, Lily feels forced to investigate which makes the wrong people watch her.

Daniel Cole has Ragdoll coming out on April 4. This is another debut for those who like their suspense a little darker. This is the start of a series featuring Detective William Fawkes, aka the Wolf, who is rather contentious and just recently reinstated. He is called to the scene of a crime where a 'body' is found - it is made up of the body parts of 6 different victims. When Fawkes ex-wife, a journalist, gets anonymous pictures of the crime scene along with a list with 6 names and the date the killer is going to kill them - Fawkes takes special interest as his name in on that list.

Philip Kerr has Prussian Blue also coming out on April 4. I love Kerr and this is the twelfth in his Bernie Gunther series. Kerr writes a real noir gumshoe period piece in these titles. Gunther is a former Berlin homicide detective who was hiding out on the French Riviera in 1956 when a deputy head of the German Stasi found him and wants him to kill another agent. Bernie flees to Berlin and thinks back when a friend and he solved a murder at Hitler's  mountaintop retreat. Are these connected?

Lori Rader-Day has The Day I Died coming out on April 11. This tale features Anna Winger, a handwriting expert who can dell things about a person's character. Winger is called to the scene of a murder in her new hometown to check out a handwriting ransom note left at the scene where a young boy is also missing. She starts to wonder if the mother of the boy left the note to save the child from an abusive father - after all, Winger did the same thing. While she is forced to investigate, her own life and that of her 13 year old son, start to fall to pieces.

M.L. Rio, another debut author has If We Were Villains also coming out on April 11. Rio is another actor/author combination. Born in Miami, raised in North Carolina and graduated from UNC she also has a master's degree in Shakespeare Studies from King's College London and Shakespeare's Globe so....she knows what she is talking about in this tale. I will let her describe what this tale is about taken from her blog "I wrote a book called If We Were Villains. It's about seven young Shakespearean actors who make some really big mistakes. But more than anythings it's about loving books and words and storytelling, and if that's something you love, too, I think you might like it." I will add that one of the seven ends up dead and the story is told from the perspective of one of them who is getting out of prison 10 years later.

I am going to leave you with the final one that is by yet another debut author. I really loved this one although it isn't a mystery or suspense. Kate Eberlen has Miss You coming out on April 4. Tess has a brief meeting with Gus when both are traveling in Italy - Tess with her friend, Doll and Gus with his parents. Their story is told in alternating chapters as they both 'almost' meet. Their lives do not turn out has they had hoped - there is grief, betrayal, love and general incidents for both. From the first meeting in 1997 until they do in fact meet for real in 2013. Life happens. I found it a comforting and provocative story.

Enjoy, I'll be back next week.

I'm Back!

I was gone longer than expected. I am sorry about that - I tried hard but they just let me come back full time this week. Therefore, I have to quickly tell you all about the April titles as I only have 2 posts left to talk about them.

I am going to start with the big name authors who have titles coming out in April. Most of these you probably know about but just in case, I will fill you in.

David Baldacci has The Fix coming out on April 18. This is going to be the third in the Amos Decker series. Decker was a football player who became a detective who received a hard blow to his head which made his memory exceptional. Here, he witnesses a very confusing murder. Neither the victim or the killer seem to have any connection. When someone from the Defense Intelligence Agency tells him to get off the case, Decker has trouble following the order.

Steve Berry has The Lost Order coming out on April 4. His series features Cotton Malone who is a former federal agent who became a rare book dealer. Here, Cotton deals with the highly secret Knights of the Golden Circle who buried a lot of gold around the US. Somehow this is all connected to the Smithsonian Institution. There are those who want the gold for the money and those who want to keep it for it's historical significance. I think you know what side Cotton is on.

Mary Higgins Clark has All By Myself Alone also coming on April 4. Clark has always written the soft romantic suspense. In this work, Celia Kilbride escapes to a cruise ship when her husband-to-be is arrested right before the wedding. She was hired to lecture on her area of expertise, gems and jewelry. One of her friends on the cruise, Lady Emily Haywood, is murdered and her emerald necklace is missing. Who else could investigate?????

Jeffery Deaver has The Burial Hour coming on April 11. This is in his Lincoln Rhyme series. Rhymes, a quadriplegic, relies on Detective Amelia Sachs to be his legs. This work has an 8 year old girl witnessing the kidnapping of a businessman from NYC's Upper East Side. Then when a similar kidnapping occurs in Italy - police are stymied and call on Rhymes and Sachs.

Iris Johansen has No Easy Target coming on April 25. Margaret Douglas, an animal psychic, has appeared in prior works by Johansen but here, she has a story of her own. Douglas goes on the run from an enemy from her past but soon realizes that her strengths lie in hunting  - not escaping.

John Sandford has Golden Prey coming on April 25. Lucas Davenport has a new job - he is a U.S. Marshal who is free to investigate any case he wants. Occasionally, people high up might ask for his involvement but he is used to identify the handiwork of criminals. Now he is caught between a drug cartel and the criminals who stole from them.

Lisa Scottoline has One Perfect Lie coming out on April 11. I am not exactly sure what to say about this one. It follows a community's high school and baseball team. It involves 3 boys on the team and their families and a new assistant baseball coach/government teacher. It leads you down a path of a possible terror plot. I really like Scottoline as she often throws in those lines of humor when things get really dark. Get ready for a roller coaster ride, she can also pull your emotional strings.

Lastly for today, Stuart Woods has Fast and Loose coming out on April 18. It is another in the Stone Barrington series. This is actually the 41st in the series - that is quite a haul. Here Stone is enjoying an excursion on his yacht off the Maine coast when someone bumps into him - or rather his boat - literally. The people on the other boat are members of a prestigious family who can actually use his help. Stone delightfully assists them in their problem and gains an enemy who wants to blow up his house for his interference. Will Stone stand for that?

OK - I promise - no more absences for the foreseeable future. Enjoy.