FICTION
Released: June 19, 2012
"Historical hindsight may make readers a bit more self-congratulatory about recognizing the evils of apartheid, but it won't help them see around the curves Nunn has plotted or rise above her insight into the enduring dilemmas of her separate-and-unequal world."
The murder of a beautiful Zulu housemaid threatens to inflame racial tensions in 1953 South Africa.
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FICTION
Released: June 15, 2012
"To the series' usual attractive locations seasoned with a dash of history, Hudgins adds a mystery with an intriguing group of suspects. "
A wedding party gathers on a remote Swiss mountaintop, where the uninvited guest is murder.
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FICTION
Released: June 8, 2012
"Fans of Chandler (Bingo Barge Murder, 2011) will appreciate the character development and sense of humor, though newbies may wonder why anyone would help hapless Baz."
FICTION
Released: June 5, 2012
"So sadistically measured in its pace that readers will have plenty of time to ask themselves how different they really are from the perverts tuned in to Number 4's sufferings. "
Katzenbach (
The Madman's Tale, 2004, etc.) sets an amateur sleuth living on borrowed time to hunt a kidnapped teenager whose time is even shorter in this pulp-ish re-imagining of "The Pit and the Pendulum" for the digital age.
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FICTION
Released: June 5, 2012
"More disciplined than Jackie's wild first two cases, though that's not saying much. A treat for readers who enjoy the journey more than the destination."
Called out in the middle of an epic snowstorm by a client who did three years for killing his paramour's husband, Hamptons attorney Jackie Swaitkowski (
Bad Bird, 2010, etc.) finds every indication that he's done it again.
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FICTION
Released: June 5, 2012
"Consigning most of the violence to the past allows Piccirilli (The Fever Kill, 2007, etc.) to dial down the gore while imparting a soulful, shivery edge to this tale of an unhappy family that's assuredly unhappy in its own special way."
Summoned home by an urgent plea from his kid sister, a runaway brother finds his family of thieves just as dysfunctional and even more criminal.
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FICTION
Released: June 1, 2012
"The Valley Girl voice Howell affects for the series (Slay Bells and Satchels, 2011, etc.) is, as she might say, mad old school. A reboot of the basic formula seems urgently needed to increase the lolz."
FICTION
Released: May 15, 2012
"Ceepak and Boyle's seventh caper (Rolling Thunder, 2010, etc.) moves like lightning as it puts its cartoonish cast through their paces."
FICTION
Released: May 15, 2012
"The best of these tales are perceptive glimpses into how people live out the choices they make. The worst are pointless recitations of one disaster after the other. No one escapes unscathed, but some wounds are redemptive; others just bleed."
Longtime Long Islander Jones has collected a volume of 17 new stories as diverse as the massive island itself.
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FICTION
Released: May 8, 2012
"Once again, Groundwater, mixing mystery with outdoor adventure, comes up with an excursion that will please most comers."
A fishing tournament brings murder to the Arkansas River and distress to a novice river ranger.
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FICTION
Released: May 8, 2012
The Belgian Congo of 1958, facing enormous social changes as colonial rule is nearing an end, is challenged by more intimate disruption.
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FICTION
Released: May 8, 2012
"Brandreth's fifth Oscar Wilde caper (Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders, 2011, etc.) floats on a cushion of bubbly banter and droll period references. The whole series is literary escapism of a high order, though with each episode the mystery seems to recede further in importance. "
FICTION
Released: May 8, 2012
"Kuhns' focus on a closed community allows her to keep her story from drowning in period detail while emphasizing both the limitations and the charms of the Shakers' vanished world."
The winner of the 2011 MWA/Minotaur First Crime Novel Competition takes an itinerant weaver searching for his son to an unexpectedly tangled mystery inside a Shaker community in 1796 Maine.
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FICTION
Released: May 1, 2012
"Includes recipes, menus, drink concoctions and much charm, but a denouement so silly that it leaves a bad taste in your mouth. "
FICTION
Released: May 1, 2012
"Thompson (Murder on Sisters' Row, 2011, etc.) once more weaves the class differences and casual bigotry of the period into a mystery with some neat twists."
An upper-class midwife and an Irish Catholic police detective continue their unlikely alliance in a seventh murder investigation.
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FICTION
Released: May 1, 2012
"Nottingham's third (Cold, Cruel Winter, 2011, etc.) does not provide a very challenging mystery but is worth reading for the details of life in 18th-century Leeds."
His investigation into the death of a young woman stretches to the limit the meager resources of Richard Nottingham, Constable of Leeds.
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FICTION
Released: May 1, 2012
"Only a churl could resist Sidney, whose musings on love, evil and morality, penchant for quoting snippets of poetry, preference for whiskey over the endless cups of tea he is offered, and ratiocinative success at unraveling crimes make him endearing."
A cleric celebrates Queen Elizabeth II's coronation year by assisting a detective inspector in solving a series of genteel crimes.
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FICTION
Released: May 1, 2012
"The mystery may not be very challenging, but there's lazy seaside charm, food tips and the obligatory knitting project for those so inclined."
FICTION
Released: May 1, 2012
"Doubling the mysteries doesn't really double the fun in Viets' convoluted eleventh."
FICTION
Released: April 10, 2012
"Once again Stroby demonstrates how adept he is at making readers empathize with the essentially unworthy."
Chasing her retirement number, superthief Crissa Stone (
Cold Shot to the Heart, 2011, etc.) fills bunches of money bags. And body bags.
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