[bksvol-discuss] Fw: Mystery August 2009
- From: "Amber Wallenstein" <amber.wallens@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 09:24:17 -0400
New and Recently Released!
Huge - by James Fuerst
Publisher: Crown Publishers
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 07/07/2009
ISBN-13: 9780307452498
ISBN-10: 0307452492
Mystery. Twelve-year-old Eugene "Huge" Smalls may be small for his age, but
that doesn't mean he's not tough and fearless. In 1980s suburban New Jersey,
he reads hardboiled detective novels (Chandler is a favorite) and rides around
on his trusty bike (complete with banana seat). When the entrance sign at
his grandmother's nursing home is vandalized, potty-mouthed Huge is furious.
Inspired by his books and motivated by his grandmother's offer to pay him,
Huge investigates--and he grows up a little bit, too. If you like
character-driven stories with a great sense of place, you'll love Huge, James
Fuerst's
"engrossing" (Booklist) debut novel.
First Chapter
The Case of the Missing Servant: From the Files of Vish Puri, India's Most
Private Investigator - by Tarquin Hall
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 06/02/2009
ISBN-13: 9781416583684
ISBN-10: 1416583688
Mystery. In Delhi, India, 51-year-old family man Vish Puri runs Most Private
Investigators. He and his operatives (nicknamed Tubelight, Flush, and Facecream)
spend most of their time checking out prospective brides and grooms before
arranged marriages occur. But when a lawyer hires Vish to find a missing maid,
he ends up dealing with a murder and traveling across the country. Closer to
home, Vish's mother, Mummy-ji, starts her own investigation after someone
takes potshots at her darling Vish. Tarquin Hall's debut novel "offers
penetrating insights into the new India" (The New York Times) and should prove
good
reading for those who enjoyed the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire.
First Chapter
The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu: A Detective Kubu Mystery - by Michael
Stanley
Publisher: Harper
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 06/01/2009
ISBN-13: 9780061252495
ISBN-10: 0061252492
Mystery. A murder investigation is always more complicated when the newly dead
person is already supposed to be dead. In northern Botswana, someone has
killed Goodluck Tinubu, but it's learned that he was listed as a Rhodesian
civil war casualty almost 30 years ago. Who murdered Tinubu (if that's who he
really was) and one other victim at a bush camp? That's what Detective David
"Kubu" Bengu is called in to find out. There's no sophomore slump for Detective
Kubu--Library Journal says his 2nd outing is "an even better tale" than his
much-lauded 1st, A Carrion Death. If you like Alexander McCall Smith's No.
1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, try Michael Stanley's similarly charming
novels, which are also set in Africa.
Blindman's bluff : a Decker and Lazarus novel - Kellerman, Faye
Publisher: William Morrow
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 08/11/2009
ISBN-13: 9780061702327
ISBN-10: 0061702323
Publishers Weekly (06/15/2009) In bestseller Kellerman's solid 18th novel to
feature L.A. police detective Lt. Peter Decker and his wife, Rina (after "The
Mercedes Coffin"), Rina finds that some jury duty should include hazardous duty
pay. A shooting rampage at the 70-acre compound and mansion owned by shopping
mall magnate Guy Kaffey leaves Kaffey, his wife and two guards dead. Kaffey's
oldest son, Gil, apparently was left for dead and two other guards are missing.
A plethora of suspects and motives has Decker and his colleagues looking at
Guy's brother, Mace, and Guy's younger son, Grant, as well as the missing
guards,
other household staff, the remaining off-duty staff and possibly business
rivals. Decker's cool professionalism is thoroughly tested when a chance
courtroom
encounter thrusts Rina into the case and puts her in harm's way. Kellerman
expertly keeps interlocking investigations moving along with a minimum of
confusion
but plenty of doubt as to the guilty party or parties.
Get Real - by Donald E. Westlake
Publisher: Grand Central
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 07/17/2009
ISBN-13: 9780446178600
ISBN-10: 0446178608
Comic Caper. John Dortmunder, a reality TV star? That's right! In Get Real, the
criminal genius and his gang are breaking and entering for the cameras (their
faces will be blocked out and they've been promised legal protection). While
the reality show will provide a nice salary, Dortmunder and his gang aren't
satisfied, so they plot a more lucrative payout...by robbing the shady TV
production company itself. This is the 14th and final novel in this criminally
funny series--Donald E. Westlake, who used numerous pseudonyms and was an
Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, died on New Year's Eve, 2008. Want to hang
out with more funny fellows? Try Carl Hiaasen's novels.
Death Wore White - by Jim Kelly
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 06/09/2009
ISBN-13: 9780312570811
ISBN-10: 0312570813
Police Procedural. In this "superb whodunit" (Publishers Weekly), young DI
Peter Shaw and his partner, hard-as-nails DS George Valentine (who was Peter's
late father's partner), must solve an unbelievable murder. On a Norfolk coastal
road, a man who was stuck in his car thanks to a snowstorm has been killed.
Other motorists are also stranded nearby--but how could any of them have
committed the murder without leaving footprints in the snow? Death Wore White
is the well-done 1st in a new series by CWA Dagger-winning Jim Kelly. If you
like the cars-in-a-blizzard aspect of this mystery, check out Christopher
Fowler's White Corridor.
The Lord of Death - by Eliot Pattison
Publisher: Soho Press
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 06/01/2009
ISBN-13: 9781569475799
ISBN-10: 1569475792
Mystery. Tibet is a land of beauty...and danger. Now living there, exiled Shan
Tao Yun, a former Beijing police inspector, is ferrying a corpse across the
slopes of Everest in order to keep a promise. But his perilous journey is made
even more harrowing when he comes across a dead Chinese woman and a dying
American. The 6th book in a fascinating series, The Lord of Death "engages,
enlightens, and entertains" (Booklist). Though newcomers can enjoy this book
on its own, those who want to start at the beginning should pick up The Skull
Mantra, Pattison's Edgar-winning 1st mystery.
The Baker Street Letters - by Michael Robertson
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 06/23/2009
ISBN-13: 9780312538125
ISBN-10: 031253812X
Mystery. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote so convincingly about Sherlock Holmes
that some readers have believed that the fictional detective existed and lived
at 221B Baker Street, London--and, even today, people write to him. Lawyers and
brothers Reggie and Nigel Heath find out about the modern missives when
they rent a new office on Baker Street; as part of a lease stipulation, they
must answer every letter. The two men find themselves dealing with a murder
and taking a trip to L.A. after Nigel reads a 20-year-old letter written by a
little girl whose father is missing and decides he must help them. If you
like this "lively and inventive" (Kirkus Reviews) debut, look for Sherlock
himself in Laurie R. King's Mary Russell mysteries.
Museum Murders on Exhibit
Some places are perfect locales for mystery novels--a museum, with its
secretive, quiet corridors and priceless artifacts, is certainly one of them.
Below
you'll find a few novels that utilize these halls of knowledge as the perfect
setting for a criminal exhibition.
The Sudoku Murder: A Katie McDonald Mystery - by Shelley Freydont
Publisher: Carroll & Graf
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 04/25/2007
ISBN-13: 9780786719778
ISBN-10: 078671977X
Cozy Mystery. Mathematician and puzzle-solver extraordinaire Katie McDonald
takes a leave of absence from her job at a government think tank in order to
help her mentor, Professor P.T. Avondale, save his puzzle museum in her New
Hampshire hometown. But before she can help him solve his financial problems,
he's killed...and Katie is the main suspect. Taking over as curator, now she
not only has to save the museum on her own, but also figure out who really
killed the professor, all the while staying out of jail. This "captivating
series debut" (Library Journal, starred review) should please fans of other
puzzle mysteries, such as those by Parnell Hall.
The Keepsake: A Novel - by Tess Gerritsen
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 09/09/2008
ISBN-13: 9780345497628
ISBN-10: 0345497627
Suspense. The Crispin Museum is a small, private Boston institution that needs
as many ticket sales as possible in order to survive. So when a mummy is
found in their storage area, the curators couldn't be happier. Until they learn
that, although the outer wrapping carbon dates at 2,000 years old, the
body inside is quite new. In her 7th outing, homicide detective Jane Rizzoli
again joins forces with medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles. But before they
can wrap up the case, more bodies are found and a troubled young archaeologist
disappears. If you enjoy the complex storylines and escalating tension in
Tess Gerritsen's novels, check out Iris Johansen's Eve Duncan series.
The Murder Room - by P.D. James
Publisher: Random House
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 11/01/2004
ISBN-13: 9781400076093
ISBN-10: 1400076099
Mystery. In The Murder Room, Commander Adam Dalgliesh and his team investigate
the homicide of Neville Dupayne, an unpopular trustee at a small, family-owned
London museum that's dedicated to the inter-war years, 1919-1938. Neville's
murder mimics one of the exhibits in the establishment's famous Murder Room,
which showcases items having to do with homicides. With so many ideas to choose
from, is it any wonder that the killer strikes again? This is the 12th
novel featuring cerebral poet-detective Dalgliesh--if you haven't met him
before and want to start at the beginning, pick up Cover Her Face, which was
first published in 1962.
First Chapter
Relic - Preston, Douglas J.
Publisher: Tor
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 01/01/1996
ISBN-13: 9780812543261
ISBN-10: 0812543262
Suspense. Days before a massive exhibition at the New York Museum of Natural
History, visitors are being murdered. Autopsies indicate that the killer cannot
be human. The museum's directors decide to go ahead with the bash in spite of
the murders. Now museum researcher Margo Green must find out who or what
is doing the killing. Does she have time to stop a massacre?
First Chapter
The Deeds of the Disturber: An Amelia Peabody Mystery - by Elizabeth Peters
Publisher: Avon Twilight
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 01/01/2000
ISBN-13: 9780380731954
ISBN-10: 0380731959
Historical Mystery. In Victorian London, the death of a night watchman at the
British Museum spurs talk of a mummy's curse. When more deaths follow, feminist
archaeologist Amelia Peabody, who's visiting England in between Egyptian
excavations, investigates. Adding to the charm of this character-centered book
are Amelia's relationships with her beloved husband, Radcliffe Emerson, and her
genius son, Ramses. The Deeds of the Disturber, which Library Journal calls
"first-rate" and "fun," is the 5th novel in Elizabeth Peters' popular series,
which now includes close to 20 books. Want to meet Amelia when she was still
single? Pick up her 1st book, Crocodile on the Sandbank.
Rattle His Bones : A Daisy Dalrymple Mystery - Dunn, Carola
Publisher: Kensington Pub Corp
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 03/01/2003
ISBN-13: 9780758201683
ISBN-10: 0758201680
Cozy mystery. The Honourable Daisy Dalrymple brings her usual style and flair
to this eighth installment, set in 1920s London, in Dunn's engagingly
entertaining
series (Murder on the Flying Scotsman; Styx and Bones; etc.). Titled but
penniless, Daisy has forged a successful career as a freelance journalist. Her
latest assignment, on the museums of London, sends her to that city's Natural
History Museum, where she stumbles upon murder. The dead man, the extremely
unpopular Dr. Pettigrew, Keeper of Mineralogy, had been heard violently arguing
shortly before being found among pieces of a smashed dinosaur skeleton,
his chest pierced by a shard of fossil bone. To complicate matters, Daisy
learns that someone has replaced the entire museum gem collection with fakes.
Murder and mayhem being right up her alley, Daisy determines to solve both
mysteries as well as to research her article. Her long-suffering fiance?, DCI
Alec Fletcher of Scotland Yard, oversees the case, which is filled with every
type of suspect from rival museum curators to Rudolf Maximilian, the
dispossessed
grand duke of Transcarpathia. The tale takes off a little slowly, but once
murder occurs, the pace picks up. The satisfying climax comes, fittingly enough,
on a foggy London evening. Dunn's witty prose shines in this lighthearted
whodunit.
First Chapter
Murder at the National Gallery - Truman, Margaret
Publisher: Random House
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 07/01/1996
ISBN-13: 9780679435303
ISBN-10: 0679435301
Art gallery owner Annabel Reed-Smith and her law-professor husband Mac turn
sleuth once again when the discovery of a long-lost masterpiece by Caravaggio
and the schemes of Luther Mason, senior curator at the National Gallery, lead
to theft, art forgery, and murder.
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