Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Firsts on the 1st: New Series Characters Being Introduced in March 2011 Mysteries

New Hardcover Mysteries from the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books

The Hidden Staircase Mystery Books recently updated its list of March 2011 hardcover mysteries as well as shelved new March paperbacks on The Mystery Bookshelf.

In this series of monthly posts, which we call Firsts on the 1st, we're introducing readers to new series characters who will make their mysterious debut during March.

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Deadly Currents by Beth Groundwater
Print EditionKindle EditionPrint and/or NookBook Edition(s)

Title: Deadly Currents
Author: Beth Groundwater
Series Character: Mandy Tanner
Format: Trade Paperback

What we know about the character: Mandy Tanner is a river ranger along the Arkansas River in Colorado.

Her first case: The Arkansas River, heart and soul of Salida, Colorado, fuels the small town’s economy. When a whitewater rafting accident occurs, Mandy deftly executes a rescue, but a man dies anyway. Turns out, it wasn’t the rapids that killed him — he was murdered. Tom King was a rich land developer with bitter business rivals, who cheated on his wife, refused to support his kayak-obsessed son, and infuriated environmentalists.

Mandy’s world is upended again when tragedy strikes closer to home. Suspicious that the most recent death is connected to Tom King’s murder, Mandy goes on an emotionally turbulent quest for the truth — and ends up in dangerous waters.

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Babe Ruth Is Missing by Saul Isler
Print EditionPrint and/or NookBook Edition(s)

Title: Babe Ruth Is Missing
Author: Saul Isler
Series Character: Ovid Kent
Format: Trade Paperback

What we know about the character: Ovid Kent is a San Francisco-based rare book and autograph dealer.

His first case: Ovid is hired to find and return the prized autograph of Babe Ruth stolen from the autistic son of a famous nonagenarian trial lawyer. After a legendary sturgeon sends him to the hospital, where he falls in love with his intake nurse, he begins a fruitless search of the Bay Area. The search leads him to Cleveland where the lawyer’s son had secured the Babe’s signature half a century earlier. There, with the help of the ethereal and nagging Babe himself, Ovid finds the thief, the autograph and a bonus: his estranged mother.

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Beaglemania by Linda O. Johnston
Print EditionKindle EditionPrint and/or NookBook Edition(s)

Title: Beaglemania
Author: Linda O. Johnston
Series Character: Lauren Vancouver, Pet Rescue
Format: Mass Market Paperback

What we know about the character: Lauren Vancouver runs HotRescues, a private no-kill animal shelter in Granada Hills, California.

Her first case: It's often human nature that puts Lauren in the path of danger. Just like when she helps rescue four adorable beagle puppies that were dumped down a drainpipe at a nasty puppy mill. One of the mill's employees has a history of dog abuse — and a bone to pick with Lauren. And when he's found dead at HotRescues after threatening her, Lauren will have to sniff out the real killer to keep herself out of a cage ...

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The Sticking Place by T. B. Smith
Print EditionPrint and/or NookBook Edition(s)

Title: The Sticking Place
Author: T. B. Smith
Series Character: Luke Jones
Format: Trade Paperback

What we know about the character: Luke Jones is a rookie cop in San Diego (California).

His first case: It's 1978 in "America's Finest City" — San Diego, California — and one rookie cop is learning the hardest lessons the streets have to teach. Luke — a recently graduated, Shakespeare quoting literature major — is about to discover that dealing with crooks is the easiest part of his new job. For here, in a world populated by people ruled by their obsessions, Luke's strong will and quick tongue alienate many of his senior officers and he must fight to be accepted. Although eventually labeled a hero, his success comes at great cost.

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The Informationist by Taylor Stevens
Print EditionKindle EditionPrint and/or NookBook Edition(s)

Title: The Informationist
Author: Taylor Stevens
Series Character: Vanessa "Michael" Munroe
Format: Hardcover

What we know about the character: Vanessa "Michael" Munroe deals in information—expensive information—working for corporations, heads of state, private clients, and anyone else who can pay for her unique brand of expertise.

Her first case: Born to missionary parents in lawless central Africa, Munroe took up with an infamous gunrunner and his mercenary crew when she was just fourteen. As his protégé, she earned the respect of the jungle's most dangerous men, cultivating her own reputation for years until something sent her running. After almost a decade building a new life and lucrative career from her home base in Dallas, she's never looked back.

Until now.

A Texas oil billionaire has hired her to find his daughter who vanished in Africa four years ago. It’s not her usual line of work, but she can’t resist the challenge. Pulled deep into the mystery of the missing girl, Munroe finds herself back in the lands of her childhood, betrayed, cut off from civilization, and left for dead. If she has any hope of escaping the jungle and the demons that drive her, she must come face-to-face with the past that she’s tried for so long to forget.

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What Are Friends For? by Caroline Taylor
Print EditionPrint and/or NookBook Edition(s)

Title: What Are Friends For?
Author: Caroline Taylor
Series Character: P. J. Smythe
Format: Hardcover

What we know about the character: P. J. Smythe is an Annapolis skip tracer, who tracks down loan defaulters.

Her first case: 2003. Rescuing her boyfriend from the long arm of the law seems like such a good idea — until P. J. discovers he’s been cheating on her. Then the judgment part of her brain shuts down‚ and she’s the one who lands in jail. Fortunately‚ P.J.’s best friend Alicia comes to the rescue.

2010. Now it’s payback time‚ and the only thing Alicia wants is for P.J. to play the starring role in a documentary she is filming. When P.J.’s first “client‚” environmentalist Vivian Remington‚ winds up dead of an overdose‚ P.J.’s past comes back to haunt her.

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Death Along the Spirit Road by C. M. Wendelboe
Print EditionKindle EditionPrint and/or NookBook Edition(s)

Title: Death Along the Spirit Road
Author: C. M. Wendelboe
Series Character: Manny Tanno
Format: Trade Paperback

What we know about the character: Former Oglala Sioux tribal cop Manny Tanno is an FBI agent.

His first case: The body of local Native American land developer Jason Red Cloud is found on the site for his new resort on the Pine Ridge Reservation. A war club is lodged in his skull-appearing as if someone may have performed a ritual at the crime scene.

Manny arrives in Pine Ridge to find that not everything has changed since he left. His former rival, now in charge of the Tribal Police, is just as bitter as ever, and has no intention of making Manny's life easy. And the spirit of Red Cloud haunting Manny's dreams is not much help either, leaving him on his own in hunting down a cold-blooded killer — and one misstep could send him down the spirit road as well.

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For a list of more mysteries scheduled for publication during March, please visit our New Mysteries home page. If you're interested in new paperbacks, visit The Mystery Bookshelf, where you can discover a library of new mysteries, also updated with March 2011 releases.

Please also visit the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books where we are committed to providing readers and collectors of mystery books with the best and most current information about their favorite authors, titles, and series.

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