On with March and there are quite a few good titles to talk to you about. Starting with the Canadian author Linwood Barclay. I don't know how many of you have read him but he can be compared to Harlan Coben or Lisa Gardner. His titles are fast moving and very suspenseful. This title is Far From True and is the second in his Promise Falls series and comes out on March 8th. This is one series which you should read from the first one. There is a cliffhanger at the end of the first that is resolved in this one and a cliff hanger than ends this one. Many things are going on in this series and some reviewers have had trouble keeping people straight. In this title, one story follows the screen of a drive inn movie theater exploding which kills four people. The daughter of one of the victims asks a PI to look into a recent break-in at her father's house which occurred at approximately the same time. The PI finds a hidden basement room which was clearly used for 'adult' entertainment which was recorded and some of the DVDs are missing. AND a Detective is trying to solve two murders which he believes are connected. There are evil deeds a plenty in Promise Falls.
Next is the 16th title in the Molly Murphy series by Rhys Bowen, Time of Fog and Fire. This comes out on March 1. Molly's husband, Daniel, accepts a secret assignment from the head of the Secret Service in 1906 and ends up in San Francisco. Molly sees him in a news reel and after receiving a cryptic note from him takes their child on a cross country train trip to San Francisco. Bowen writes cozy mysteries that are fast paced and have a strong sense of place. In this one, Molly and son arrive in San Francisco days before the great earthquake and can not find her husband. All is not right in San Francisco and Molly will get to the bottom of it.
Judith Flanders has the 2nd book in the Sam Clair series , A Bed of Scorpions, coming on March 1.. Sam is a book editor in London and while having lunch with an old friend, Aidan Merriam, she discovers Aidan's partner in an art gallery has been found dead. This is being investigated by Sam's current boy friend, Detective Inspector Jake Field. Questions arise which place Sam in a very awkward place but then someone tries to run her off the road when she was on her bike. Sam and Jake begin to wonder if she is a threat. These mysteries are just a touch more profane than a cozy but there is humor here and those that read cozies and are willing to go a little beyond that category should give this a try.
Then an author who could have been added to last weeks list as she is pretty popular, J.A. Jance. Jance has Clawback: An Ali Reynolds Novel coming out on March 8. She has another best selling series with Joanna Brady but this series is kind of like Hank Phillippi Ryan titles. When Ali's father is suspected of the murder of a man whose Ponzi scheme bankrupted him and hundreds of others, she and her husband struggle to clear her father's name.
If you miss the books or Chandler and Hammett, pick up Philip Kerr. I would suggest starting at the beginning of his Bernie Gunther series (March Violets) because Bernie's back story is very interesting. The Other Side of Silence, which comes out on March 29, is the eleventh in the series. This series is noir private detective and it is good noir. Bernie is German and went from being a Berlin policeman to being forced into the SS. Now he is on the French Riviera, working as a hotel concierge under the name Walter Wolf. He is approached by W. Somerset Maugham to help defend against a blackmailer who knows his secrets. Bernie is hard-drinking and sardonic with his own moral code. I am going to do something I never do and insert a brief passage from the book to give you an idea of how good this series is. "Once I’d been a good detective in Kripo, but that was a while ago, before the criminals wore smart gray uniforms and nearly everyone locked up was innocent.” I hope you will learn to like Kerr too.
One last one to tempt you, The Watcher in the Wall by Owen Laukkanen comes out on March 15. I am thinking it may be time for Laukkanen to move up to the A List of authors. He can be compared to Baldacci, Morrell and DeMille. His suspense is plot driven and fast paced. This title is the 5th in the Stevens and Windermere series. Laukkanen by the way is a Canadian author, don't let his last name put you off. Stevens is with the FBI and Windermere is with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Together they work a joint violent crime task force. Here, the investigate the suicide of a classmate of Kirk's daughter and discover a very disturbing occurrence. There appears to be an online suicide club of teens that are being pushed by an unknown ringleader. Give him and chance and Laukkanen might make fans of you.
OK - hope there is something there that tempts you. I have a few on my list.
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