More November Titles

I am off on vacation for a week but wanted to get another blog entry done before leaving. Some of these are even Christmas themed.

Rhys Bowen has Away in a Manger coming out on November 17. This is from her Molly Murphy Sullivan series. Molly now has a family and they are out listening to carolers in 1905 New York when she hears a little girl singing Away in a Manger in a doorway. Dirty and unwashed, the little girl is yet well spoken and along with an older brother, is living with a nasty aunt. Molly has to investigate, doesn't she?

Charles Finch has the ninth in the Charles Lenox series coming out on November 17, Home by Nightfall. Lenox has two cases he is working on for his thriving detective agency. A famous foreign pianist has disappeared and numerous small crimes around his brother's home in Sussex. When visiting his brother, Lenox realizes just how strange these small crimes are. He is racing before either investigation turns deadly.

Richard Paul Evans has the second in his holiday love story Mistletoe Collection, The Mistletoe Inn, scheduled for release on November 17. Kimberly Rossetti has had two broken engagements and a divorce and is ready to fulfill at least one dream when she signs up for a 9 day romance writing workshop in Savannah, GA. There she meets Zeke, another aspiring romance writer, and together they begin to realize what is holding them back both in writing and personally.

Sherrilyn Kenyon has Born of Betrayal coming on November 3. Kenyon is a very popular urban fantasy or paranormal romance author. Her first series, Dark Hunter, was overwhelmingly popular. This is the 10th in her The League series.These are slightly more fantasy romance than paranormal. I would suggest reading the whole series in order as if you jump into the middle, you will not have the background on the characters. Fain Hauk has left his military career, planet and fiancee behind for the sake of his family. He has made a life for himself but the past is catching up to him.

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child get together again for the number 15 in the Pendergast series, Crimson Shore, which comes out on November 10. Investigating the theft of a wine collection in the seaside village of Exmouth, MA, Pendergast and his ward Constance Greene discover a bricked-up niche that once held a crumbling skeleton.They know this because of the shackles and an overlooked finger bone. Can he possibly not investigate? Of course he has to.

Hopefully this will hold you till next week. Hope the rain has gone away for now.

November Big Names - and There Are A Lot!

Wow - there are a lot of major authors coming out with new works this month. I am going to try to cover most of them but there will be other weeks to do the rest so....I will do as many as I can.

First off, David Baldacci has The Guilty coming out on November 17. This is the fourth in the Will Robie series. Will Robie left his hometown after high school and never looked back. Now, his father, a town judge, has been charged with murder. Robie returns to try to help but meets resistance on all sides, including his father. Can he find out if his father is really guilty? What possibly deadly secrets will he discover?

Michael Connelly has The Crossing coming out on November 3. Harry Bosch is retired from the LAPD but can't seem to stay out of trouble. His half-brother who is a defense attorney wants his help in clearing a client of murder. When he starts investigating, he starts drawing bullets. Hmmm. Can he make it through this time?

Everyone's favorite, Stephanie Plum, is back with Tricky Twenty-Two by Janet Evanovich on November 17. Stephanie is assigned the case of Ken Globovic who was arrested for beating up the dean of students at Kiltman College and then missed his court date. People have seen him on campus but no one is talking.When the person Ranger was hired to protect is killed in his backyard and then Joe Morelli is assigned the case, Stephanie has a dilemma. All she wast is the cash prize.

Mary Higgins Clark has her second in the Under Suspicion series coming on November 17, All Dressed in White.  Laurie Moran decides to take on a case of a missing bride as a cold case for her investigative TV series. Amanda Pierce disappeared 5 years ago at The Breakers in  Palm Beach just before her wedding. Moran brings her whole crew down to The Breakers to reenact the event in hopes on new clues being found. Danger is the result.

James Patterson brings back Alex Cross with Cross Justice on November 23. Cross goes back to his North Carolina hometown after 30 years to defend a cousin. In the process, Alex discovers a deadly family secret which might kill him. Now he is looking for the killer and the truth.

Lastly for this week, Stephen King has a work of short stories coming on November 3, The Bazaar if Bad Dreams. King has always been a great short story author and has won awards for it. This is a collection of some previously published in magazines or online and some brand new stories. Each is prefaced with notes on its origins, themes or motivations. King has said "Feel free to examine them, but please be careful. The best of them have teeth." I personally, can't wait. I've always loved King's work - maybe not his Carrie or The Shining - but his real 'morality tales' like The Stand or Insomnia or 11/22/63. 

Hope you find something you want to read above. Probably you have already put your name on most if you liked the author. However, next week we hit ones you might not know about.

More October Titles

Here are the next few titles that I personally am looking forward to reading.

Adriana Trigiani has All the Stars in the Heavens  coming out on October 13. After her Big Stone Gap series, she heads to the Hollywood of the 1930's and the real-life love affair of Loretta Young and Clark Gable. With this background the story focuses on Young's personal assistant - a young woman names Alda who had been studying to become a nun. How she deals with Hollywood while trying to maintain her high ideals is a struggle.

Faye Kellerman has The Theory of Death coming out on October 27. This is the 23rd in the Peter Decker series. Decker is now Chief of police in  quiet Greenbury in upstate NY. It has been over a year since the last murder in town and he is enjoying the quiet pace. Then, the nude body of a man is found in the woods near town. It appears to be a suicide but with no personal items near the body, Decker has a hard time finding out who he is. An old friend, Tyler McAdams, shows up and both men start an investigation. Can they solve the twisted crime?

Mike Maden writes a series about high tech warfare. His third in the Troy Pearce series, Drone Command, arrives on October 16. Pearce and his high tech team is called in to diffuse a conflict between China and Japan. China claimed some waters in the East China Seas and Japan is willing to fight to have them remain open. Political intrigue from Maden who holds a  PhD. in political science.

Sloane Crosley has penned her first novel, The Clasp arrives on October 6. Three friends in their late 20's meet at a college friend's wedding. The groom's mother tells one of them about a necklace that vanished in Nazi-occupied France. The three friends are off on a hunt for the necklace. It's hard for the three to meld the way they did in college with life having changed each. Told with heartfelt humor and suspense.

Kate Morton has The Lake House coming on October 22. Morton tells the story in two time periods starting in 1933 when a couple lived in a large lake estate with their 3 daughters and 11 month old son and other relatives. During a large midsummer party, the son disappears and is never found. Seventy years later, Sadie Sparrow is put on disciplinary leave from the London police department when she can not let a case go. She visits her grandfather in Cornwall and stumbles on the vacant, deserted house and learns about the disappearance. She investigate to occupy herself. One of the 1933 daughters has become a mystery author and now lives in an elegant Hampstead home. Sadie arrives with questions and brings the past back with all of its secrets.

Hope there is something here for you. Next time we start with November.

October Titles

Our Children's Book Festival is tomorrow so I am busy and will be working tomorrow at the festival. Therefore, today's post will be short and not cover as much as I might like. Maybe I will have a chance next week to add to it.

Gregory Maguire, the author that has taken on the Wizard of Oz with his Wicked series, has taken on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with After Alice which comes out on October 27. Alice's friend who was briefly mentioned in the original tale, here take a starring role as she goes after Alice and also slides down the rabbit hole. Can she find Alice? What does she think about the happenings down in Wonderland? Read and find out.

John Katzenback has The Dead Student coming on October 6.  Timothy Warner (a.k.a. Moth) is a PhD student and an alcoholic who has lost his license and is working toward sobriety attending AA meetings. His uncle Ed, who also attends meetings, doesn't show up and Moth goes to his office and finds him dead, shot in the head with a gun by his fingers. The police decide it is suicide but Moth does not believe that. Moth goes to an ex-girl friend to ask for help (someone has to drive) and investigates. There are more deaths. Can Moth make it out alive?

Felix Francis is following in his father's footsteps after assisting and even co-authoring on the last few titles. Front Runner is coming out on October 13. Jefferson Hinkley, an undercover investigator for the British Horseracing Authority, was introduced in Francis' Damage. Jeff is back in this title and in severe danger after a jockey comes to him confidentially about losing races on purpose. Strangely, the jockey is shortly found dead of an apparent suicide and there is an attempt on Hinkley's life. Of course he must investigate and, of course, someone wants to stop it.

Tess Gerritsen has Playing with Fire coming out on October 27. She has stepped outside of the Rizzoli & Isles series for this stand alone. Julia Ansdell is a violinist who while playing with a group in Rome picks up an old piece of sheet music, The Incendio Waltz. She returns home to her husband and 3 year old daughter and while playing the music, she blacks out and when awakening finds her daughter changed and very violent. When she expresses that her 3 year old is trying to kill her, her husband wants to commit her but she escapes to Venice, to find out about the music. Is she going crazy? Read and find out. Reviewers LOVED it.

Lastly, Deon Meyer has Icarus coming out on October 6. Meyer's has been described as the Ed McBain of South African crime. This title is the 5th in his Captain Benny Griessel series. Griessel is called to the scene of a multiple homicide involving a former colleague and after 4 years of sobriety, Griessel goes on a bender. When he emerges, he tries to quit the forc3e but instead is assigned to the murder of the tech person for MyAlibi, an Internet service that provides unfaithful partners with cover stories. Before long, an connection to a leading family winery is found and Griessel is again on the line.

OK - sorry for the short post but there are some pretty good titles above. Hope one is a keeper for you.

LibraryReads for October

They announced the LibraryReads for October yesterday and most of these are ones I would pick so I am excited about them. There are a couple of nonfiction that I might not have chosen but that is because I don't really read much nonfiction. So....the biggest vote getting this month was - - -

City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg. This is Hallberg's first novel and people in the know say it could be the book of the year. It begins with a killing in Central Park on New Year's Eve; follows a large cast of characters in New York City; meanders from 1959 to 1977; and culminates in the blackout of July of 1977. It is more than a mystery but at over 900 pages, it better be. All the characters are connected by the killing and by the blackout but go their own way and develop stories of their own. People have complained that it is overwritten and people have called the writing smooth and enthralling. If you want to read 'the possible book of the year' - this one is for you.

Next up, Jojo Moyes' After You. If you read Me Before You, then you have to read this one because it is the continuing story.  I talked about this title last month because it actually comes out in September. As a reminder, it carries on with Louisa Clark who is forced to return home after an accident. She is trying to move on after loosing Will Traynor. One that makes you laugh and cry.

Elizabeth George is next with a Lynley and Havers novel, A Banquet of Consequences.  This is the 19th in the series and is said to be better than the last few. If you have read her before, you will want this one. Once again Havers is definitely the more active investigator and Lynley is the brains behind the action. Havers has been disciplined and is trying hard to toe the line and Lynley is coming out of mourning for his wife and unborn child's death. Quite literary in tone and maybe more novel than police procedural. If you like her, you will like it.

If you read The Bone Clocks, you can not miss Slade House by David Mitchell as it takes place in the same world. Every nine years, Slade House appears in a grungy alley in London and every year, someone goes in it and goes missing. The book progress in 9 years leaps starting at Halloween 1979 and ending at Halloween 2015. Fantasy, haunted house or horror - you can decide. It is much shorter than The Bone Clocks so there is that. Said to be deeply satisfying for those who read TBC.

Next comes Margaret Atwood's The Heart Goes Last. This is another one that I spoke about with the September books as it comes out on September 29. Atwood is an award winning Canadian author. The Handmaid's Tale has become a modern classic. This one is a reworking of  her online Positron stories. Amazingly, some reviews have hated it but I think it is a must read for those who have loved her prior works. A  young couple, Carmaine and Stan, are living out of their car when they find out about Consilience. This is a social experiment where people live in a comfortable home of their own
in the suburbs for one month and switch every other month with living in a jail cell. They begin to obsess about who is living in their home while they are gone. Some hate it / some love it. If you love her, you need to give it a try.

From Pulitzer prize winning author, Geraldine Brooks, comes A Secret Chord. This is a fictionalized account of the life of King David. The story is told mainly for other people's viewpoint. Reviewers are saying the writing is wonderful, the character's complex, and she really takes you back to living in that time. If you like t

Next comes a novel born from a series of twice-monthly podcasts in the style of a community update for a small desert town. Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor is the story of 19 year old pawn shop owned Jackie Fierro and a mysterious man in a tan jacket who gives her a paper that she can't seem to put down. Described as weird and funny, only you can decide if you have to read it.

Now for the last fiction before taking aim at the 2 nonfiction books, Sarah Ward has the British mystery In Bitter Chill. A small town in Derbyshire, England is traumatised when 2 young girls are kidnapped in 1978. One of the girls is found but the other remained missing. When the mother of the still missing girl commits suicide over 30 years later, the case again attracts attention. The girl who was found can not remember a thing about what happened but since the suicide has brought press attention, she realizes that she needs to find out what happened years ago.

Then Comes Marriage: United States v. Windsor and the Defeat of DOMA  by Roberta Kaplan with Lisa Dickery. The attorney who argued before the Supreme Court for the plaintiff in this case relates the story behind the news.

Lastly, We Were Brothers: A Memoir by Barry Moser. 2 brothers born of the same parents in a small Tennessee town were so different, right from the beginning, that they did not really care too much for each other. One was reflective and artistic and one was aggressive, outspoken and a racist. Barry left Tennessee and became and artist. For years, they did not speak to each other. This is Barry's story of growing up and eventually overcoming to find  his brother again.


See if any of these sound interesting to you.

October's Big Names

There are several very popular authors who are publishing titles in October. I think there is probably something here for everyone. Take a look.

Robin Cook has Host coming out on October 20. Cook is known for his medical thrillers and this one is no different. When a 4th year medical student's boyfriend's routine surgery, ends up with him being brain dead, Lynn Peirce must investigate. What she uncovers results in death threats. Can she and her lab partner find the answers before two big medical companies close their mouths forever? It is truly a desperate race.

Before Vince Flynn died, he was said to be co-authoring a book with Brian Haig. Unfortunately, that has not yet come to fruition. Instead, Flynn's estate has asked Kyle Mills to continue the Mitch Rapp series. I have always enjoyed Mills' own work so I think they put it in good hands. The Survivor comes out on October 6. Vince had written the first 2 chapters of this work before passing so Mills had something to start with. His own work is not dissimilar to Flynn's but with a touch more sarcasms so I will be interested in seeing if Rapp's personality changes at all. This work follows the event in The Last Man. Joseph "Rick" Rickman stole a massive amount of top secret data and offered it to Pakistani secret forces. Now he is dead but no one knows where the info is. Rapp must find Rickman's accomplices and the data which is being slowly leaked to the world. Let's see how Mills does.

The ever popular John Grisham has Rogue Lawyer coming out on October 20. Because I haven't read Grisham for a while and I don't expect I will read this one, I am going to quote from the Kirkus review. "Another by-the-numbers legal procedural, at once gritty and lethargic, by longtime practitioner Grisham.Sebastian Rudd, the rogue lawyer, carries a gun, works out of his car, and sleeps in a different hotel room every week, precisely because he runs up against so many bad guys who mean him harm. Some of them are cops. Why? Because Sebastian, though jaded and cynical, as literary lawyers are required to be, apparently still believes in justice Rudd finds himself in a Podunk burg where a client is fighting for his life against the charge that he's brutally murdered two little girls in a spectacularly gruesome crime. Indirection and misdirection abound, with lots of talky exposition, the requisite maverick-y norm-flouting and the usual sarcastic world-weariness Unfortunately, the reader can see most of the mystery coming from a long way off, making the yarn less effective than most. .(Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 2015). If you like Grisham, you will read it anyway.

Debbie Macomber has a Christmas novel coming out on October 6. We can start the holiday season with Dashing Through the Snow, the story of a graduate student and a former army intelligence officer who are forced to share a rental car to Seattle so one can visit with family and the other can get to a job interview. Within the confines of the car, they open up to each other and start to develop feelings. Let's just say that the ride is not without it's share of mishaps and adventures. Will they make it to Seattle in time?

George R. R. Martin has A Knight for Seven Kingdoms coming on October 6. This is the first US edition of the first 3 official prequel novellas to A Song of Ice and Fire. They recount the time when the Targaryen line still held the throne and the memory of the last dragon was fresh on their minds. For all those who are having trouble waiting for the next volume in the series.

John Sandford has an entirely new type of book coming out on October 6, Saturn Run. Sandford wrote this work with Ctein, who I am going to assume is an engineer. This story is about a space age rush between the US and the Chinese to reach Saturn where a space ship is noticed by Caltech intern. The US tried to keep it secret but when the Chinese find out, the race is on. Who will be the first to reach Saturn. This takes place in 2066 so I'm not fooling you when I say it is different than his others. Kind of a science fiction thriller with lots of technical information.

Lastly, Stuart Woods has a new Stone Barrington work , Foreign Affairs, coming on October 13. Stone is informed at the last minute about a mandatory meeting in Europe. When he rushes off, his trip seems to be cursed because it is plagued by suspicious accidents. When Stone investigates to see what the source of these 'accidents' are, the adventure begins. Who will scare who off?

Many different types of novels here. Hope you find one to love.

Finishing Up September Books

August is coming to a close and next week, I move on to October titles so I need to finish up with what I think are the interesting ones coming out in September.

M. C. Beaton has the 26th Agatha Raisin cozy coming out on September 15th, Dishing the Dirt. A new therapist comes to town and starts by romancing Agatha's ex husband and dropping hints about Agatha coming from the slums. Unfortunately, Agatha gets mad enough to proclaim "I'm going to kill you!" a day or two before someone kills the therapist. Guess who the main suspect is.

Elsa Hart has Jade Dragon Mountain arriving on September 1. I always enjoy a story that transports you to the time and place where it takes place. This is one of those. It takes place in China during the 1700's. The main character is Li Du - an imperial librarian who was exiled. When a Jesuit astronomer is murdered - Li Du is drawn into the investigation. Hart, a debut novelist, wrote this novel while living in Japan.

A Girl Without A Name by Sandra Block comes out on September 8. Psychiatrist Zoe Goldman is back after her outing in Little Black Lies. A young African American girl (around 12 or 13) appears on the streets in a catatonic state. She arrives at the institution when Zoe is put on the case. The girl does not remember her name and Zoe becomes obsessed with finding out who she is. The young girl is in greater danger than Zoe can imagine and she puts herself in danger trying to find out what happened.

Stephen Dobyns is an award winning poet who sometimes dips into the mystery/thriller genre. On September 1, he has Is Fat Bob Dead Yet arriving. This work has been called a mix of Richard Russo and Tim Dorsey. As you can probably tell from the title, there is a lot of comedy in this one. A hopeless loser, Connor Raposo, witnesses a motorcycle accident and is somehow drawn into a mob like comedy. If you need a laugh, try this one.

Next, Chris Holm, an award winning short story author, has The Killing Kind coming on September 15. Michael Hendrick was thought dead after the secretive military unit he was with had a mission end up bad. However, he actually left everything from his past life behind and became a hit man - a very well paid hit man. He only took cases where he killed other hit men which was a sure way to have people after him.

David Lagercrantz was asked to continue Stieg Larsson's sequel to the series featuring Lisbeth Salander and journalist Mikael Blomkvist by Larsson's estate. The result is The Girl in the Spider's Web which arrives on September 1. Blomkvist receives a phone call from a source who says he has info vital to the US.Blomkvist turns to Salander. Not too much has been released about the plot.

Do you like fast paced, plot driven adventure novels? Do you like the Bond novels? Give Ted Bell a chance. His 9th Alex Hawke novel is arriving on September 15. Patriot has Hawke taking on Russian President Vladimir Putin when Putin gets a hold of a powerful new weapon. Hawke, an MI6 officer, is out to stop him.

Iris Johansen has the 19th Eve Duncan novel coming on September 29th. Shadow Play has Duncan reconstructing the skull of a 9 year old girl who had been buried for 8 years. When the ghost of the girl speaks to her, Duncan becomes determined to find the killer and bring the girl peace. Unfortunately, the killer knows she is after him.

OK, certainly there must be something among these that strikes you as interesting. Decide what you want to read now and be the first to get it. We will move on to October next week.