August Big Names

I am preparing this slightly early this week to prepare for the July 4th holiday. There aren't too many gigantic names this month and obviously, what I think is big in the publishing world might not be what you think is big. However, 3 of them at least are pretty well known authors.

I am leading off with Sue Grafton's X which comes out on August 25. She is probably the biggest name this month. Said to be the darkest of the entries in this series, a serial killer raises his ugly head. Kinsey has figured out who it is but has no proof. Can she find the proof before he kills her? Why doesn't X stand for something (i.e. x is for xray)? It makes me wonder.

Sara Paretsky brings back V.I. Warshawski for the 17th time with Brush Back. This actually comes out on July 28th but no one is going to read it until August anyway. Warshawski tries to do a favor for an old boyfriend. His mother spent 25 years in prison for supposedly beating and killing the friend's little sister. She has always claimed innocence although Warshawski knows she is a violent person. Unfortunately, her few questions about the crime ends up involving her in the graft of Illinois politics. She discovers that several people wanted the girl dead and now they want her dead too.

OK - 2 pretty gritty mysteries so I am going with the romantic paranormal suspense of Karen Robards. The Last Time I Saw Her comes out on August 25. A lot is going on in this title. It is the 4th in the Dr. Charlotte Stone series. Stone probes the minds of incarcerated serial killers. Meanwhile, she is in love with a ghost who is or was a convicted killer. She believes that his double was the guilty killer and strangely enough - he, that is the double, shows up in town. In addition,  there is a prison break and psychopaths are running around the area. Stone has to track them down before they track her down and kill her while trying to make a case against her lover's double. Not sure if I can keep all the plot lines straight without reading the book.

Now for a legal thriller, Linda Fairstein has Devil's Bridge coming out on Aug 11. This is Assistant District Attorney of NYC, Alex Cooper's 17th outing. This time the book is narrated from Homicide Detective Mike Chapman's point of view. Cooper and Chapman have worked together as partners in past entries but this time, a romantic relationship between the two is introduced. Cooper disappears and Chapman tries to find her. If you like NYC, this series will appeal to you.

OK - now I am going to talk about 2 titles together. One a biography and one an undiscovered novel.  Iceberg Slim was the father of street lit and rap. His Memoir, Pimp, sold millions of copies. On August 4, a biography about him, Street Poison: The Biography of Iceberg Slim, and a previously undiscovered novel, Shetani's Sister, will be published. Both are pretty gritty but a good way to discover the why and then read the results.